20 Years
by riseofafallenangel
Summary: Time travel fic- cliched but I love them. The war is over and things are finally going smoothly for Harry so obviously things have to get complicated. Slash AU.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Yes it is yet another time travel fic. Be homest, everyone loves them… well at least I do and I've never written one before so I thought I'd take a shot at it. Hope you like it- I'd be sad if you didn't.

Disclaimer: not mine.

* * *

Chapter 1

"I am fully aware that most members of this class would like nothing more than to sleep through this lesson. However, unfortunate though it may seem, we still have a lesson and your full attention will be required if you wish to pass your NEWTs next year. Although I fear _some_ of you are far beyond help." Snape looked pointedly at Harry when he said this. Harry didn't think he looked very sorry that they still had a lesson at all. In fact, although it was hard to tell with Snape- he looked miserable all the time- it was probably the highlight of his day.

"Today we will be making Amortentia," Snape looked like the very name of the love potion was making him feel sick, "and I will not be repeating myself. Quills out and copy down what I say."

The lesson was long. Harry couldn't help but be amazed at how slowly time goes when you just want it to pass. It was the last lesson of the year and, of course, Harry's bad luck meant that it_ had_ to be potions.

He wrote down what Snape was saying with one eye on his professor, one on the clock and the whole of his mind on the summer holidays. He knew he was going to copy it down wrong, make horrible mistakes and have to redo it next term before the NEWTs using Hermione's notes, but that wasn't enough to force him to concentrate on Snape's monologue about moonstones.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Ron slide a note towards him across the desk. He looked up to check Snape hadn't noticed. He was busy taking points away from Neville for breaking a tube before he had even started making the potion so Harry grabbed the parchment and read it under the desk.

Ron had charmed a timer onto the paper above his note.

**31 minutes, 42 seconds**

**So that you don't have to keep looking at the clock. Ever heard of subtlety mate?**

Harry found it hard to believe that Ron could accuse him of being unsubtle. Ron was the king of unsubtle.

_Ok, I get it, but I'm bored!! Anyway, you can hardly talk; you were actually snoring in herbology you know? I had to charm you so Sprout didn't hear so don't you talk to me about unsubtle._

Harry flicked the parchment of his lap onto Ron's and mentally cheered at his incredible aim. The one advantage of the potions lab was that it was best for passing notes. The desks were high so it was difficult for Snape to see what the students were doing behind them. One of the desks at the back had had a kind of tunnel/tube carved into it by someone which you could push notes through and they landed right on the person at the end of the tunnel's lap. Unfortunately, Snape had eagle eyes and it was still difficult to do anything right under his nose.

The note reappeared in and small puff of smoke in front of Harry. Ron had charmed it there. Harry reached out to pick it up but Snape got there first.

"For future reference- when breaking rules, special effects are not a wise move. I will see you after the lesson Potter, and you Weasley."

Harry groaned. Now they would have to stay an extra 10 minutes while Snape threatened them with detention/torture/beheading/letters home/summer jobs cleaning out the potions cupboard. He looked over at Ron who had gone white as a sheet.

"What did you write?" Harry mouthed at his friend.

Ron mimed drawing a picture and pointed at Snape before mouthing something about "amortentia" and "Dumbledore". Harry hit his head on the desk.

Maybe it would be more like an extra 30 minutes.

* * *

"I can't believe him, last day of term and he's given s a bloody detention!"

Ron was stabbing his sausage as if it had Snape's face on it. Hermione was unsympathetic.

"It was the last lesson; would it really have killed you to pay attention?"

"That is not the point Hermione!"

Harry wasn't really listening to their argument; they argued all the time.

"Harry back me up here, it's unreasonable isn't it?"

"What? Oh, yeah."

He looked back at his plate.

"Harry, have you been listening to a word we've been saying?"

"Was it important?"

"Well no, not particularly but you should still…"

"I'm gonna go pack before detention. See you later."

He got up and left before Hermione could finish her rant. He loved Ron and Hermione but they drove him up the wall with their constant bickering. Part of him wished they would just admit that they wanted to shag each other but the more selfish part of him wanted them to stay in denial about it. He didn't really fancy being the gooseberry.

He rounded the corner to the common room and then turned round again when he saw Ginny standing outside the portrait of the Fat Lady with one of her many friends. He liked Ginny but constant giggling and flirting got on his nerves and he wasn't in the mood to deal with her. It was his own fault really. She never used to be annoying and girly, he used to think she was quite cool but then he had kissed her after a quidditch practice once which, looking back on it, was a stupid thing to do. He didn't fancy her but he knew she fancied him and it had seemed like a good idea at the time. It wasn't.

After that she had gotten it into her head that he felt the same and was waiting for him to ask her out. When he didn't she started being overly flirty and girlish to get his attention which just annoyed him. Girls didn't really interest him much. He supposed they would when he found one he really liked but mostly he just didn't understand them.

He wandered aimlessly around the school, not really having anywhere to go after turning away from the common room, and found himself in the owlery. Hedwig swooped down onto his shoulder and he stroked her absentmindedly, thinking about whether he should send a letter to Sirius. He decided not to. He was seeing him tomorrow so there wasn't really a lot of point. The letter would probably only just get there before he did. He headed back down to the common room. Ginny and her friend had gone so he gave the Fat Lady the password and climbed in. Ron and Hermione were back.

"Are you sure? Wouldn't you rather go for a walk outside? It's a nice day."

Hermione looked at Ron suspiciously.

"On my own? You two have detention remember? No, I want to get started on my holiday work. You should too. We have loads."

She turned round to head up to the dormitory and get her books. Ron yelled after her.

"Ok, have fun. We're going to our detention now."

"But our detention's not for another…"

"RON WEASLEY!!"

"Run!"

Ron dragged Harry out of the common room at a sprint. He didn't stop until they were round a corner. They both leant against the wall and panted, getting their breath back.

"What was that about?"

"I spilt some acid on one of her books in potions. I was hoping she wouldn't notice until the holidays. It was an accident!"

"God there's going to be no talking to her for hours."

"If she wasn't so possessive over her bloody books we wouldn't have this problem. If she was normal she would find it funny."

"Well unfortunately she obviously doesn't find it funny and "we"? I'm pretty sure it was just you who spilt the acid. I'm not part of this."

Harry shot Ron an infuriating grin and set off to their detention with Ron trailing behind him, muttering something about loyalty.

* * *

The detention was pretty average. They had to help clean out the potions cupboard with a kid from the year below who Harry knew from previous potions detentions as both of them seemed to get them all the time.

His name was Leo. He was an ok guy and Harry was glad to have some company other than Ron who had just complained about Hermione for the whole of the detention. Leo seemed to share Harry's disinterest in girls which definitely made him a better person as far as Harry was concerned.

Ron left a few minutes early in an effort to catch Professor McGonagall before she went to bed so Harry walked up to the common room with Leo.

"So where do you live anyway? We've been doing detention together for two terms now and I hardly know anything about you. Well, apart from the obvious…"

Leo gestured vaguely at Harry's scar and looked at his feet as if they had suddenly become the most interesting things in the world. People tended to do that when they accidentally brought up Voldemort.

"Erm… well I'm living in London now. I moved in with my Godfather last holidays."

"Oh right cool." Leo looked relieved to have something else to talk about. "So you don't live with those muggles anymore. That's good right? I heard you didn't like them."

"Yeah. Yeah it's brilliant. The house is awesome and me and my Godfather get on great so, yeah…"

"Well, we should get together sometime in the holiday. I live in London too. I'll write to you?"

Harry nodded.

"Yeah that would be great."

Leo smiled. For some reason he looked relieved.

"Alright. Talk to you soon then. Bye."

They went off to their separate dormitories. Ron was back in Harry's.

"Hey, what took you so long?

"I was talking to Leo."

Ron grimaced.

"What you want to talk to him for? He's weird."

"Nah, he's cool."

"I heard he was a queer."

Harry shrugged and went to sit on his bed.

"Just because he's not all over girls all the time doesn't mean he's gay."

"Ok, no need to get defensive. I was just saying, you know, you might want to be careful not to get too close."

"Why? In case he tries to rape me or something?"

"Well… yeah. I mean it's not normal is it? Being gay."

Harry rolled his eyes.

"There's nothing wrong with it. Anyway, you don't even know if he is."

"I do. It's obvious isn't it? They're always obvious. I could spot a poof from a mile off."

Harry finished getting changed and got into bed. Once everyone had gone to sleep he thought about what Ron had said. Was Leo gay? Possibly. Maybe that was why he'd asked about the holidays. He didn't think he would mention that to Ron. Did he care if Leo was gay? No, not really. He rolled over and looked at the pictures on his bedside table. One of them was a picture of him and Sirius in the last holidays. Just after Voldemort had fallen and they had started living together. Sirius was wearing a giant bunny suit for Easter and there was chocolate everywhere. They were laughing. Harry had missed Sirius. For the first time ever he was actually looking forward to the Summer holidays. It would be good to have some different company for a while.

* * *

A/N: Yeah I know nothings actually happened yet but still… review?


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"Harry!"

"Just coming." Harry yelled down the stairs to Hermione who was standing impatiently in the common room before continuing the search for his lost Quidditch gloves.

He hadn't got round to packing the night before because of the detention so he did it that morning but he couldn't find the gloves. He had the worst craving for bacon so he decided to look after breakfast. After breakfast he was distracted by Ron wanting to play chess. The pattern continued in pretty much the same way and before he knew it, it was time to leave and he still hadn't found them.

"Harry, hurry up!"

"In a second!" He dropped to the floor to look under his bed for the tenth time. They weren't there.

"Not 'in a second' Harry; we have to go NOW!"

Harry groaned. It must be that time of the month because Hermione had been in the worst mood all day. Usually she was bossy but today she was smashing her own records for bossiness into pieces. He gave up his search and grabbed his trunk before running to the stairs and crashing headlong into Ron, who Hermione had obviously sent up to fetch him.

"Bloody hell, I'm telling you mate, that girl has issues."

Harry grinned; at least he wasn't the only one who had been on the receiving end of Hermione's grumpiness.

"You know, just now when we were waiting for you, she tripped over Neville's shoes and started yelling at ME. Like it's my fault Neville didn't notice that he went out to the train without his shoes on."

Harry laughed and grabbed the handle of his trunk.

"Come on, we should get down there before she comes up here and drags us down by our-"

"Harry! Ron!! Hurry up!!"

By the time the two of them had finished shoving Harry's over-packed trunk down the winding stairs, Hermione looked like she was about to burst. Harry opened his mouth to say something and decided against it, just in case she was finding his voice particularly annoying today. She stormed towards the portrait and Ron made a nervous face behind her back.

"I saw that Ron Weasley."

The three of them rushed down to the entrance where Professor McGonagall glared at them as they ran through the main door, the last students to leave the school by a good ten minutes. As her and Hermione shared a look that clearly said "useless" Harry couldn't help thinking that today wasn't shaping up to be the best day he'd ever had.

* * *

The three friends found the only empty carriage left on the train and sat down. Hermione was still in a foul mood and Ron had decided that saying nothing was the only way to be sure of not saying anything to upset her which was oddly intelligent for him. This meant that Harry was left to entertain himself with his own thoughts. Not that he really minded too much, he was used to it. All those days in the cupboard at Privet Drive and the potions lessons when Hermione insisted on taking notes and Ron was in the hospital wing with second-degree burns from his botched potions had made him fairly good at coping with boredom but it still wasn't his favourite past-time so he was glad when Ginny burst into the compartment and broke the silence.

She babbled cheerfully for a while in a way that irritated Harry a bit but he was thankful for her, as her incessant bubbliness seemed to cheer Hermione up and make the atmosphere in the compartment much more pleasant. Harry decided that if it stopped Hermione biting their heads off every time they breathed wrong it was worth having to listen to her and Ginny talk about hair potions for half an hour. But then half an hour turned into an hour, an hour turned into two and three hours later, when they finally pulled into the station he was beginning to miss the silence and was hugely grateful for the train ride being over. It only took one look at Ron's face to know that he too shared the sentiment and the two of them hurried off the train with their trunks.

The platform was packed out with Hogwarts students who seemed to have their whole families, including second cousins and great aunts, there to meet them so it was almost impossible for Harry to find Sirius, who was supposed to be coming to pick him up. At least, he had said he would, but knowing Sirius' talent for remembering details like that it was entirely possible he would be walking home. Just when he had resigned himself to dragging his trunk and owl through the streets of London he felt arms squeezing him around his waist from behind and lifting him up so his feet couldn't reach the floor.

"Sirius! Put me down!"

Sirius laughed and dropped him ungracefully on the ground. Harry looked up at him and glared.

"I said put me down not throw me on the floor."

"Yeah I know but where's the fun in that."

He grinned and held his hand out to his godson and helped him up before shrinking the trunk and picking it up.

'Now why didn't I think of that?' Harry thought, not wanting to say it out loud and give Sirius a chance to brag about his superior common sense and intelligence.

Harry said a quick goodbye to Ron, Hermione and Ginny before heading off to the car with Sirius who was talking almost as much as Ginny, although fortunately not about such annoyingly girly subjects.

"… and we can go to the beach and swim and climb on rocks and swim and… did I say that already? And we can play hide and seek! Don't look at me like that, its fun!"

Sirius was the only person Harry knew who could get excited about a game of hide and seek. Harry smiled; he'd missed his crazy rambling Godfather.

It was the first summer since Voldemort had been defeated and the first summer since Harry had moved in with Sirius, Remus and Tonks. It was an odd arrangement but Remus and Tonks couldn't afford their own place and Sirius hated living alone so they all lived together. The house Sirius had chosen was pretty big but nothing like his old home at Grimmauld Place as there were no screaming portraits, snake decorations or crazy house elves. It had taken a while for Harry to get used to after Privet Drive but he loved it.

Harry laughed at Sirius as he jumped out of the car and dragged him into the house by his wrist. Harry dumped his tiny trunk by the door and collapsed on the couch.

"Don't get too comfy, you need to go change. We're going out."

"What, now? Where?"

"It's a surprise. Now hurry up!"

Sirius pushed Harry up the stairs and into his room. Harry shook his head and made his way over to the big cupboard in the corner of his room. He grabbed the first clothes he could find which happened to be a pair of black jeans and a green shirt. He had bought the shirt in the Easter holidays with Sirius. Sirius had insisted on it because according to him it matched Harry's eyes. He could be such a girl sometimes. Harry had agreed to get it though, on the basis that it also matched his hair since he had dyed the ends of it green and it was really comfy. He quickly looked in the mirror on the way out, switching his glasses for muggle contact lenses and running a hand through his hair. Once he had decided it wasn't too obvious that he's been on a train for a whole day, he went back downstairs.

Sirius was already waiting at the bottom looking impatient. The second Harry got close enough he grabbed his hand and dragged him out of the door. Harry couldn't help noticing he was getting dragged around quite a lot recently.

"We have to hurry or we'll be late."

"Late for what?"

"I told you, it's a surprise!"

Harry could see that Sirius was taking great pleasure in concealing where they were heading from him which Harry found a lot less annoying than he was making out. The grin plastered on Sirius' face made Harry want to smile too. He liked it when his Godfather was happy; he had put up with far too much misery in his life. However, Harry moaned and asked questions all the same. It was more fun that way.

"Are we there yet?"

They were walking down a practically deserted street and were very clearly not there yet.

"No, and how old are you? Five?"

"Sirius?"

"Yes?"

"Are we there now?"

"Nope"

"How about now?"

"Still no."

"Ok… now?"

"No, and you will never get there if you keep that up. I will strangle you before we arrive."

Harry pouted.

"You wouldn't strangle me. I'm the only Godson you have. I'm not expendable."

"So? Who needs a Godson when you can have a nice wall hanging instead?"

"Are you suggesting that you would make me into a wall hanging?"

"You're a fast one you."

"Well that's rude. I'm not talking to you now."

"Thank God some peace and quiet."

Harry kept his mouth firmly clamped shut. He was well aware that their whole conversation was incredibly immature but he didn't care. He could be as immature as he wanted around Sirius. It was fun.

"Ok I'm bored of being silent."

"Bugger."

"Sirius?"

"If you say "are we there yet?" I swear I will slice you up."

"That's not what I was going to say… but now you mention it, are we there yet?"

"Yes."

"Really?"

"Would I lie to you?"

"Yes."

"Well I'm not lying. Look."

Harry looked where Sirius was pointing. There was a strange, shiny-looking door in the brick wall in front of them. The only part of the wall that wasn't covered in graffiti. He got the impression from the few people walking around them that they were the only ones who could see it.

Sirius saw the puzzled expression on Harry's face and his smile grew even bigger.

"Come on."

He led Harry to the door and held it open for the younger man to go through. On the other side was the tallest room Harry had ever seen. The top was filled which tiny stars and the floor around their feet was covered in something that looked like water but wasn't wet. It swirled around their feet like a gas. In the air between the two was a selection of different sized silver bubbles. Harry still had no idea where they were.

Sirius signalled for him to follow him up a flight of stairs at the side to a small platform at the side of the room. When they reached the platform a small elf appeared.

"What is your bubble number sirs?"

Sirius looked at a scrap of paper in his hand.

"3"

"Very good sir. I will call it down sir."

The elf pressed a button and one of the bubbles floated down so that it was level to their platform. A door slid open in the side to reveal Remus and Tonks, sitting at a small table, laid for four, inside.

Harry and Sirius climbed in and the door slid shut behind them. Harry looked around as their bubble floated back up. From inside the bubble he could see everything: the stars, the water, the other bubbles. It made him feel a bit dizzy but it was amazing. The water was so dark it seemed black and the sky seemed to be purple, as if it was always the point just after sunset. He couldn't see the walls of the room and it seemed to stretch on for an eternity. It felt like he was floating. Shortly after thinking this he realised that they _were_ floating.

He turned back to the others to see Sirius watching him and grinning.

"You like it?"

"Yeah. Yeah it's… wow."

"Good. It's like a welcome back party."

"Wow."

Remus grinned too.

"You've said that already."

"I know, but… thank you so much, this is so cool!"

Tonks waved her hand at him.

"Don't look at us. I was Sirius' idea."

Harry looked back at Sirius who was looking slightly embarrassed.

"I knew you liked flying so… it just seemed like a good idea. I found it the other day."

Harry jumped out of his seat (which is easier said than done when you're in a bubble) and hugged Sirius so hard he squeezed all of the air out of him. Sirius laughed and hugged him back.

"Glad you like it."

Harry sat back down. The ordered some food, then some more and some more after that because they couldn't decide what they wanted. Sirius finished of all the bits the others didn't want which made Tonks moan about how unfair it was that he wasn't disgustingly obese. By the time they left it was the morning and they were all exhausted and aching from laughing too much and slipping around the bubble.

Harry went up to his room and collapsed on the bed, still fully dressed. That night he slept better than he had done for months.

* * *

A/N: Pleeeeease review. It would make me really happy 


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Wow, over 300 hits and no reviews, you guys are really on a roll. Just saying…

Anyway, that's as much as I'm going to complain because I know it's annoying and I know its unlikely anyone will read this bit anyway.

Chapter 3

Harry woke up to a voice whispering in his ear.

"Harry… Harry."

His eyes flickered open to see Sirius sitting on his bed beside him.

"What are you…?"

"I have to go out. Remus had some sort of crisis, but I'll be back later."

"What time is it?"

"6:30"

"6:30?! You're mental. I'm going back to sleep."

Sirius laughed.

"Ok. See you later."

Harry heard the door shut and Sirius' footsteps head down the stairs. He turned over but he couldn't find a good position. Eventually he gave up and rolled out of bed. He trudged down the stairs to raid the kitchen.

The problem with living with Sirius was that there usually wasn't any food. This wasn't because he didn't buy any, he bought food nearly everyday, but he tended to only buy food he felt like eating. Then he would eat it.

Remus and Tonks weren't really interested in food. Remus hardly ever had an appetite and Tonks was always on a diet so all she had was strange wafer-like things and low-fat ice-cream. What is the point in low-fat ice-cream?

After he had searched for about 20 minutes and only found a tin of nuts, some wafers and a jar or peanut butter, Harry decided to go out and get some food of his own. He considered buying a fridge too so that he could hide the food from Sirius in his room. He changed and grabbed his coat and a handful of coins. It was muggle money as the nearest row of shops to their house was a muggle street and he didn't think they would be very understanding if he tried to pay them in galleons.

As he walked down the street trying to remember exactly where the corner shop was he saw a sign outside another shop which turned out to be a tattoo parlour.

**All Piercings Half Price Until 31****st**** July**

He walked past it and then turned round to go look again. Then he shook his head and carried on on his quest to find the food shop. He found it and bought some bacon (he always seemed to feel like bacon recently), bread and some real ice-cream. Then he picked up some chocolate and some popcorn just because it was there. He considered buying some fruit or something but then he figured it was Tonks' job to be healthy and he was on holiday so he walked past and paid for his food. Once he had left the shop he realised he would need lunch as well and swore under his breath before going back and buying some pasta and some cheese.

On the way back to the house he spotted the sign again. This time he stopped and looked at his watch. It was only 8:15. Sirius hadn't said how long he would be but if there was a crisis he wouldn't be back until late afternoon.

The guy in the shop made up his mind for him by sticking his head out of the door and speaking to him in a gravelly sort of voice. He sounded exactly how you would expect a tattoo artist to sound.

"You gonna stand there all day or you gonna come in?"

Well after that Harry couldn't exactly leave could he? That would have been embarrassing. So he mumbled out an answer and followed the man into the shop.

"Well what you want done?"

"Err… can I get a piercing?"

"Where?"

After a lot of thought Harry decided to get one in his lip. The man ushered him into a chair and held his head back, dabbing some disinfectant on his lip and putting a clamp on the bit he wanted the piercing in.

"Ok ready?"

"Yesh" Harry wasn't sure he was but it was difficult to say anything else with his lip clamped.

"Good." The man shot the needle through his lip. It hurt.

"OW!!!"

"All done."

"That hurt!"

"Of course it hurt I just stuck a needle in your lip you big baby, were you expecting it to tickle? Now take this and make sure you clean it everyday. That will be £10."

Harry handed over the money and went home.

It didn't take very long for him to realise that buying the food had been a complete waste of time as his lip hurt too much to eat anything so he took the ice-cream up to his room and ate it very slowly while he unpacked. By the time he was done it was nearly 5 o'clock.

Harry looked over the banister to see Sirius dropping his coat on the pile by the door.

"You're back. How was the crisis?"

"Hey, sorry I'm so late but I fixed the crisis! Am I a saint or what? Do we have any food in? You wanna go out? Or we could get take-away pizza cos I really can't be bothered to cook right now."

"Don't mind. Where're Remus and Tonks?"

"They went out, thank God. I'm so glad you're back, if I had to spend another minute watching them be all loved-up I think I might just have exploded."

Harry laughed and slid down the banister. Sirius was always moaning about Remus and Tonks. Harry felt sorry for him. He thought it must be pretty boring for Sirius when he was away at school and the only other people around were busy being all mushy together.

"You're just jealous."

Sirius pretended not to hear that comment.

"I think we should eat here, then we can watch a film or something and I don't have to walk further than the door. What do you thi…"

Sirius trailed off and as he noticed the loop in Harry's lip.

"W-when d'you get that done?"

"This morning, while you were out."

Harry frowned at Sirius' expression. He hadn't expected him to mind. He was pretty surprised he even noticed.

"Why? You don't mind do you?"

"No… no, it's… its fine. I was just wondering."

"Ok."

Harry didn't believe him but he didn't pursue the subject any further.

"So, yeah, what do you want to eat and that? I mean, I don't mind. Except I'm quite tired now I think about it. So err… yeah, your choice."

Harry was beginning to get confused. Sirius had suddenly gotten all flustered and wasn't looking at him when he spoke. It definitely wasn't like him to get this worked up over something like a lip ring. He decided to ignore it and just picked a pizza and watched Sirius disappear out of the door to go and phone for it.

* * *

They decided to watch The Corpse Bride since Sirius had bought it the day before; Harry had introduced Sirius to muggle television when he first moved in and Sirius had insisted on buying one, saying that it would help distract him from the sickliness that was Remus and Tonks.

They sat on the couch and ate pizza, watching the strange animated characters run around and sing. Well, Sirius ate pizza; Harry tried to suck it without hurting his lip too much.

Normally if they were watching a film, Sirius wouldn't shut up the whole way through but this time he was oddly silent. He stared at the screen like he was transfixed by it but Harry was pretty sure he wasn't really watching; he kept looking at Harry out of the corner of his eyes when he thought he wasn't looking.

He hardly moved until they heard the front door open, signalling the return of Remus and Tonks. Sirius practically leapt out of his chair, muttered something about needing to talk to Remus and hurried out the room leaving a very puzzled Harry sitting by himself.

He heard Tonks go upstairs and muffled voices coming from the kitchen. After a couple of minutes of being a good boy and sitting where he was he went to go listen at the door. He knew he shouldn't but he really wanted to know what was up with Sirius and his curiosity outweighed his conscience. It was a waste of time anyway. He could hardly hear anything and what he could hear he didn't understand.

Sirius was just muttering and kept repeating: "He's going to be so mad; he's going to hate me."

To which Remus would reply: "No he won't, it was a long time ago Sirius. He will understand."

"No he won't you moron, would you understand? I think not."

"He won't be mad."

"He wil!! God, I know it's gonna be soon I just know it and he's gonna hate me."

And then the conversation would start again from the beginning with very slight changes. Harry sighed in defeat and turned off the film, figuring he might as well get some sleep if Sirius was just going to be weird.

After he had been curled up under the covers for about an hour, trying and failing miserably to get to sleep, he saw Sirius poke his head around the door. He pretended to be asleep but he could see Sirius watching him and it made him wonder more than ever what was up with him. Eventually he slept, hoping that tomorrow would be slightly less odd.

* * *

When Harry woke up the next day the whole house was silent. He went downstairs to find that Remus and Tonks had already gone out and Sirius was still asleep so he grabbed a slice of toast and decided to go for a walk. There was a small wizard village quite near to the house. There wasn't much there but Harry liked to watch the people.

He didn't go down there very often because it bugged him when everyone stared at him. If he stuck to more muggle places people didn't automatically recognise him which was much more pleasant when he was trying to live his life in private and relax after all the action and terror of the last few years. He wasn't sure why he decided to go today. Once he reached the outside of the village he realised his mistake. There was some kind of market on and the place was packed out with strange looking wizards and witches who were trying to sell of completely useless gadgets and potions to passing strangers. He decided to look around; it was unlikely he would find anything but it would kill time. He could write to Hermione about it; she was interested in the weirdest things.

"Pickled frogspawn! Guaranteed to cure premature female baldness!"

"Here you have one of these and you can change the shape of your nose whenever you want! Only 2 galleons, bargain."

"Buy one of these Mister. Tells you how many kids you'll have."

Harry pushed through the crowd until he felt a hand on his arm spinning him round.

"I've got something special to show you."

"No thanks I'm not interested in buying anything."

"But it's unique, one of a kind. Just have a look."

The man dragged Harry out of the crowd into an alley. Harry sighed.

"Ok what is it?"

"Well… it's a potion."

"Yes, but what does it do."

"That's exactly what I want to know."

The man had a glint in his eyes and Harry realised too late that he was too far away from the crowds for anyone to hear him yell. Before he could move the man pinned him up against the wall and forced the vial of liquid down his throat. He tried to spit out as much as he could but his head was already spinning and suddenly opening his mouth seemed like such a big effort… He vaguely remembered sinking to the floor before he passed out.

* * *

A/N: Please review, even if you hate it.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Thanks so much to the people who reviewed the last chapter and the people who have this on alerts and stuff. You really do make me happy :D.

I could go on about the happiness for years but I know no one wants me to so I'm going to shut up now. Here's more…

Chapter 4

"Is he dead?"

"No he's breathing, look."

"Who is he?"

"How should I know?"

Harry summoned up all of his strength to force his eyes open. He was lying on the cold stone floor, looking up at two strangers who looked half-concerned, half-curious and were standing in a way that made it look as if they were preparing to run away if he suddenly sat up and attacked them. The street at the end of the alley seemed quiet so he assumed the market had cleared up. Of course, he realised, he could have been out cold for days in which case the market would have been gone for a while. He didn't think so though.

"Are you alright there?" one of the strangers asked him.

Harry tried to move and was relieved to find that everything worked. He was a bit stiff but he was pretty sure that would wear off soon enough.

"I'm fine; could you give me a hand up?"

The other of the two strangers hesitantly held out a hand for Harry who pulled himself up and staggered a bit before steadying himself on the wall.

"Thanks."

"Do you want a lift somewhere? We could take you to the hospital if you want."

"No thanks, I'll be fine. I live just round the corner."

After he had finally persuaded the two men that he was ok to walk home on his own he set off back to the house, hoping that Sirius hadn't been too worried about his disappearance.

By the time he got there the stiffness had almost subsided and he was beginning to see the funny side of the whole ordeal, Ron would probably find it hilarious that he had been pinned up against a wall and force-fed mystery potion by a strange man at a market. However, when he reached the house he realised he had a bigger problem than whether Sirius would be worried or not and that was that the house seemed to have disappeared.

In fact, it wasn't just his house that had gone. The entire street which had previously been filled with people's homes was made up of muggle shops.

He looked around him to make sure he was in fact in the right place and that it wasn't some side effect of the potion which had caused him to walk in completely the wrong direction but he knew he must be on the right road when he saw the old pub at the end of the street which he usually went to with Sirius. It looked a bit different from usual but it was definitely the same building. Somehow he thought he would have preferred to just have been on the wrong road as this problem was altogether more complicated.

He sat down on the pavement and tried to clear his head. Clearly the potion had done more than he had thought. By the looks of thing he had been gone for a lot longer than he thought. What other reason could there be for everything being so different? Maybe he had been in some kind of coma… but that didn't seem to tie up. If he had just been lying in a back alley for a few years firstly, someone would have found him before now and secondly, if they hadn't found him he would definitely be dead; people just can't live that long without any food or water. The only thing he worked out while sitting on the ground was that the man sweeping the pavement around him was definitely not the same man who was sweeping it the last time he was there but that somehow didn't surprise him very much when everything else was so different.

Once he had decided that sitting there forever definitely wasn't the best solution to his problem he hauled himself up and pulled his wand out of his pocket, holding it out in front of him and nearly being knocked flat on his back when the knight bus pulled up in front of him. Some things never change.

The people who greeted him when the doors slid open had definitely changed though. He wasn't sure why he had expected to see Stan Shunpike when nothing else was the same as before but things you are used to just don't shake off that easily.

He clambered on board and handed over a handful of coins.

"I want to go to Hogsmeade please."

The conductor, who was bald and slightly overweight, nodded and waved him to a seat further down the bus. Harry couldn't help noticing that no one seemed to notice that the famous Harry Potter had just walked past them. Well, you have to be thankful for small mercies.

As he sat on the bus, gripping tightly onto the handrail by his seat to stop himself skidding to the floor, his mind returned to his strange situation. Dumbledore would know what was going on, Dumbledore always knew… Then a scary thought hit him.

What if Dumbledore was gone too? What would he do then?

He watched the scenery flash past the window feeling utterly helpless. If this wasn't all some particularly crazy dream, brought on by the mystery potion, then it was beginning to seem likely that he was completely lost and would never see any of the people he loved again. Its things like that that make you wish you hadn't got annoyed when your best friend was being bossy.

By the time the bus stopped in Hogsmeade, nearly crashing into the three broomsticks in the process, Harry wasn't feeling particularly optimistic about his plan. Nevertheless, he trudged up to the castle and knocked on the big main door, hoping that there would at least be someone to let him in. Even if it was yet another person that he had never met in his life.

For the first time that day, something went the way he wanted it too. The door creaked open to reveal Professor McGonagall. He was so happy to see her he nearly hugged her but he managed to restrain himself. Just about…

"Professor! You have no idea how glad I am to see you! Something really weird is going on, I need to see Dumbledore, is he here?"

He was silenced by Professor McGonagall holding her hand up.

"Who are you?"

Harry could have cried. After all his worrying he had found someone he knew and she had no idea who he was.

"It's me, Harry. Come on you have to remember me."

"I'm afraid I have no idea who you are."

"Just please let me see Dumbledore. I need to see him."

McGonagall considered it for a moment before nodding and opening the door wide enough for him to get in. She continued to look at him suspiciously as she gestured for him to lead the way, up the stairs to Dumbledore's office.

Harry was slightly comforted that the school, at least, was exactly how he remembered it. How it had been when he last saw it what seemed like yesterday to him. And apart from a few changes, there were a few portraits missing here and there and there was a crack one of the windows, Dumbledore's office looked the same as before as well. This helped settle his nerves a bit before McGonagall waved her arm for him to enter the main, circular room where Dumbledore lived.

"Good Morning Minerva. And who is this?"

Harry wasn't surprised that Dumbledore didn't recognise him either; in fact he was pretty sure that almost nothing could surprise him now.

"I'm Harry. Harry Potter I need to talk to you, it's important."

"Very well Mr Potter but first would you like a liquorice allsort? I've just discovered them; they are a particular favourite of mine."

Harry declined. Dumbledore popped one into his mouth and spoke again.

"I assume you are a relation of James Potter? You look a little like him."

Harry nodded.

"Yes Professor. I'm his son."

Dumbledore's eyes snapped into focus and suddenly Harry had his full attention.

"I see. Carry on."

Harry couldn't really think of anything else to say. The fact that Dumbledore knew his father was a positive thing he thought, but other than that he couldn't think what relevance his father had to his present situation. Dumbledore seemed to sense his confusion.

"Why did you come here? What was it you needed to ask me?"

Harry took a deep breath to try and work out how to phrase his problem without it coming out sounding like he was crazy, although maybe he was now he thought about it. The last thing he needed right now was to end up in St Mungo's in a straight jacket.

"Well, I seem to be… lost."

_Well done Harry, understatement of the millennium. Right up there with "Voldemort's not very nice"._

"I had an… accident, and now nobody knows who I am and I have lost my house."

_And that didn't sound crazy at all._

Fortunately Dumbledore didn't press any hidden panic button and have Harry taken away on the spot. In fact he managed to look quite serious for someone who had just been told that the person in front of them had misplaced their house.

"Mr Potter, may I ask, how old are you?"

"Nearly 17."

"Curious… how very odd…"

"What's odd?"

Dumbledore peered at him through his half-moon glasses, his twinkling eyes worried.

"Well, I just think it is most peculiar that you should be 16 when the boy you claim is your father is himself only 17. There seems to be a rather large mathematical error there if you think about it."

Harry couldn't think of anything to say to that. He tried. Opened and closed his mouth like a fish, but couldn't get anything out. Dumbledore decided to save him the trouble by continuing himself.

"I wonder, Mr Potter, if you could tell me what year it is? Or rather, what year you thought it was?"

"1997?"

"As I suspected. Unfortunately you seem to have experienced a small problem. It is, in fact, 1977."

Harry would have pointed out that that was not what most people would call a "small problem" but he was, once again, having difficulties speaking.

"I think what you are meaning to ask me is what we should do about this."

Harry nodded dumbly.

"That is a good question, and one which I do not know the answer to at present. But I can assure you that we will find a way to send you back. If you could get here in the first place there has to be a way, although it will take a while…"

"But what should I do until then?"

"I think it would be advisable for you to stay here where it is safest. If you are still here by the end of the holidays you can attend classes with the seventh year. Is that idea agreeable to you?"

Harry nodded and thanked Dumbledore but inside his stomach was plummeting. It could be ages before they found a way to send him back, if they ever did. His friends would be so worried. What if he never saw them again?

After promising to meet Dumbledore again the next day to talk he followed Madame Pomfrey up to Gryffindor Tower where he would be staying. She smiled at him kindly as she left him but he could only just manage to strain his lips into something that probably looked more like a snarl than a smile in return. He collapsed on his bed, suddenly exhausted, but he couldn't sleep. He lay there for hours, just staring at the ceiling.

* * *

A/N: Review!


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: Thanks so much to everyone who reviewed. I love you guys!!

So anyway, here's another chapter…

Chapter 5

In the weeks that followed Harry woke up every morning expecting to be back in his own bed, waiting for Sirius to stick his head round the door or jump on him to wake him up. He had never been alone at Hogwarts like this before and it seemed so quiet and lonely. It seemed so much bigger like that. He welcomed Peeves throwing things at him and calling him names because it at least broke the silence that seemed to surround him all the time.

Everyday seemed to be a countdown to the present day pupils arriving but at the same time Harry dreaded their arrival. They would ask questions and he would have to tell lie after lie. Dumbledore had been specific about what he was or wasn't allowed to say. He had refused to let Harry even tell _him _about the future out of fear of changing it, no matter how often Harry insisted that that wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing.

Still though, Harry badly needed the company. No matter how much he respected Dumbledore he couldn't deny that he wasn't the most fun companion in the world for a teenage boy. He wasn't there most of the time anyway. In this time the war was still on. Not as bad as it had been in Harry's time but he thought it was a bit typical of his luck that he would defeat Voldemort and then have to live through a whole different war.

He spent most of the days flying or in Hogsmeade but somehow looking at the revolting selection of sweets and buying dangerous jokes was nowhere near as fun when he had to do it alone.

Of course, the most interesting thing about the imminent arrival of the Hogwarts students was that Harry had already been told that he would be in the same year as his parents and the rest of the Marauders. No matter how nervous the thought of meeting his father made him (even though his dad wouldn't know who he was), he couldn't deny he was excited. That was the main reason why, on the day of their arrival, he was already sitting at the window an hour earlier than they were expected, waiting for the coaches to pull up.

When he had been waiting for about 40 minutes he heard a light chuckle behind him. He turned around to see Dumbledore. It was amazing how that man always managed to appear without making any noise.

_I have to learn how to do that._

"I see you are excited Mr Potter. It is obviously to be expected, given the circumstances."

Harry nodded, keeping one eye fixed out of the window.

"I must caution you though Harry. You must not be too disappointed if your parents aren't exactly how you expect them to be, they are young."

"I know."

Harry's thoughts flashed back to Snape's pensieve and the things he had seen his father do there but quickly pushed the thoughts away.

"I don't expect that shall be a problem though. They are good people." He paused and looked absently out of the window himself.

"I will leave you now. I think we may talk soon, about how you are settling in. Goodbye Harry."

"Thanks Professor."

He watched Dumbledore disappear into the Great Hall before turning his full attention back to the drive. It was not long after that that the first coaches began to appear.

He waited until the crowd started to file in and subtly slipped in. He didn't want to stick out too much to start off with; he'd had enough people staring at him to last a life-time.

He shuffled along with the others, listening to their comfortable chatter and trying not to step on anyone's feet. There were more people than he was used to. In his time the school was still half empty after most of the students had been taken away during the war but here the Great Hall was packed and everyone had to shout to be heard over the racket. It was so loud that even Dumbledore was struggling to be heard but it wasn't too long before he had managed to quiet the crowds and every face in the room was turned to him.

"Another year at Hogwarts. I'm pleased to see so many familiar faces, the castle is positively silent without you here…"

_You got that right._

"I'd like to take this rare opportunity of quiet to welcome our new first years who will be sorted into their houses in a matter of minutes and to announce that we have another new student joining us in seventh year who has already been sorted and has been placed in Gryffindor."

_Thanks for that. _

Everyone craned their necks around to try and find the new person and the Gryffindors sitting around Harry looked at him like they had only just noticed he was there. He sank down into the bench, trying to blend into the surroundings, uncomfortably aware of the fact that, between the green in his hair, the lip piercing and the lightning bolt scar on his forehead, he was hardly inconspicuous.

"But now, without further ado, we will have the sorting ceremony."

Harry could almost feel the eyes leaving him as their attention was drawn by the hat at the front of the hall which had just burst into song. He relaxed a little hoping that they would soon lose interest in him. He looked around him at the other Gryffindors and nearly fell of the bench completely when he caught sight of his dad sitting barely a metre down the table. He had seen hundreds of pictures of him but none of them seemed made him seem as solid as the real person sitting so close to him. As he tore his eyes away from his dad he noticed that there was still one pair of eyes in the room that hadn't left him and they belonged to the boy sitting next to his father.

It was somehow even weirder to see Sirius here than to see his dad; he looked so much like the older version Harry had left behind. He watched the other boy, feeling more and more uncomfortable as he continued to stare at him. Harry forced himself to look away and tried to ignore the other boy's eyes boring into him as he pretended to watch the sorting. Once the ceremony was finished food appeared on the plates by magic as it always did. There were loads of things Harry would have liked to eat but he barely touched it, wanting to get out and away from Sirius' stare, which was making him feel ridiculously self-conscious.

He knew he was being stupid. The other boy was probably just curious about him, who wouldn't be? New students didn't generally just appear at Hogwarts in the last year and he knew that Sirius loved making people feel uncomfortable; he lived with the man. But as much as he knew Sirius was probably getting huge kicks out of watching him squirm, he just couldn't ignore him and he couldn't sit there any longer than he had to. It was better, he thought, if he escaped early and had some time alone to compose himself.

That plan would have worked well if he hadn't walked round the corner to the Gryffindor common room to see Sirius himself standing outside the portrait, looking straight at him.

"It's quicker if you go up the other way."

It was way too late for him to turn round so his plan to spend some time alone was clearly out the window.

"Right, I'll remember that."

He tried not to sound nervous but his voice broke at the end of his sentence and gave him away completely.

Sirius smirked and walked closer to him so that he was towering above Harry. Harry had never realised how tall he was before. Maybe he had shrunk since he was at school; he must have done. But he could lift him up pretty easily in Harry's time so maybe he really was this tall…

Harry's chain of thought was cut off by an amused looking Sirius waving a hand in front of his face. He shook his head; he really needed to stop zoning out like that.

Harry looked up at his face and realised he was waiting for an answer to a question Harry hadn't heard.

"Sorry, what did you say?"

Sirius sighed impatiently.

"I said have I met you before? Cos you look really familiar."

"No I'm pretty sure we've never met."

"Are you sure? I watched you the whole way through the feast and either I've seen you before or you look a lot like someone I know."

Harry thanked Merlin that he didn't look so identical to his father anymore or he would be having real problems here.

"Well we definitely haven't met."

Sirius looked doubtful but he shrugged and seemed to accept it anyway. Harry moved to go in through the portrait but Sirius followed him and he had to resign himself to the fact he wasn't getting peace any time soon.

"So where are you from then? Are you a transfer or something?"

"Yeah, from Durmstrang. I didn't like it there so I moved."

That was the story he agreed with Dumbledore but it felt weird to say.

"Oh… cool. Nice lip ring by the way. When did you get it done?"

Harry was pleased that the conversation had turned back to something he was free to talk about and relaxed so visibly that he was sure Sirius must have noticed.

"Few months ago. At the beginning of the holidays. You like it? I haven't got a hugely positive reaction to it so far."

"Yeah, I've been meaning to get one of those for ages but I keep getting worried it will get infected and my lips will drop off."

Harry laughed and Sirius put on a look of mock offence.

"Don't laugh! I'm sure it's happened to someone."

The two of them eventually settled into a comfortable conversation about piercings and various body parts dropping off and were sitting on one of the couches laughing hysterically by the time the rest of Gryffindor started to arrive back.

"So Sirius, going to introduce us to your new mate?"

Harry turned round to see James standing behind him looking down at him. He wasn't as nervous anymore though.

"Maybe I don't want to share."

James smacked Sirius round the head and held his hand out to Harry.

"Hi I'm James."

"Harry." He said, shaking James' hand. He was introduced to Remus and Peter and the three of them joined Harry and Sirius sitting down.

"So Harry, has talking to our buddy here been enough to put you off Hogwarts yet?" This time it was James who got his head smacked. Harry laughed.

"Not yet."

"Well give it time. You'll be begging to leave before the end of the week."

Sirius pouted and glared at James.

"I don't know why I put up with this abuse, I really don't."

Remus watched his friends with the same look of quiet amusement that Harry knew he would still have over twenty years later.

As Harry watched the four Marauders laughing and joined in their conversations he began to think it might not be as difficult to settle in here as he originally thought.

* * *

A/N: So he met the marauders at last. Gotta love them.

Review!


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: I thought this chapter seemed really long but it turns out its actually the shortest one so far. Go figure...

Thanks again millions to all the people who reviewed. You really cheered me up- it's been a fairly shitty week.

Anyway, here's more!

Chapter 6

Waking up in a room full of other people when you've just gotten used to complete solitude is a strange sensation.

Harry peeked around the curtain surrounding his bed and laughed as he saw James and Remus slowly advancing on Sirius' bed, wands outstretched. Sirius, who was still asleep and completely oblivious, smiled and hugged his covers closer underneath his chin. He was so cute when he was asleep. Harry had a feeling he wouldn't be anything near as sweet once he'd been forced out of bed by his two friends.

"On three: one, two, THREE!"

James jumped on Sirius' stomach, shocking him awake and Remus shot a jet of cold water at him from the tip of his wand, causing him to yelp and swear loudly. He tried to get up and attack Remus but was restrained by James, who was still seated uncomfortably on top of him.

"GET OFF ME!! I SWEAR WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON YOU MOONY YOU'RE DEAD!!"

"Now, now Padfoot, no threats so early in the morning."

Sirius redirected his flailing arms at the grinning boy on top of him.

"If you don't get off me right now Potter, I'm gonna cut off your balls, roast them and feed them to you. No screw that; I won't roast them, you can have them raw!"

James seemed completely unfazed by the threat.

"No need to get so tetchy Siri. We just wanted to wake you up so you could get ready. We have lessons, fun, fun, fun!"

Sirius kicked his legs around violently until James fell in a heap on the floor by his bed. Sirius then proceeded to sit on him and tickle his feet until the other boy was crying with laughter. When Sirius decided he had punished his friend enough, he stood up and stormed off into the bathroom to shower leaving James panting on the floor glaring at a smirking Remus.

"Thanks for helping mate." He said, sarcasm dripping from every word.

"Anytime."

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

By the time Sirius emerged from the bathroom he had completely forgotten about the whole thing. But then considering it had taken him nearly half an hour to have a "quick shower" that wasn't too surprising.

Harry walked down to breakfast with the Marauders, laughing to himself as James and Sirius argued about toast. You wouldn't think there was much to disagree about on that particular subject but you would be wrong. He walked slightly behind them, next to Remus who kept opening his mouth and then shutting it again. Eventually he found something to say.

"So, urm… what subjects are you taking?"

"Defence, potions, herbology, transfiguration… you?"

"Oh, same but not herbology. Arithmancy instead. And not potions either, I do care of magical creatures, I'm not entirely sure why…."

"Oh."

Silence fell again. Harry saw Remus biting his lip and felt sorry for him. He knew he was trying to be nice and that he was shy. Fortunately Harry was saved the trouble of having to come up with a topic of conversation himself when they arrived at the Great Hall and all sat down.

They compared their timetables and Harry discovered he had most of his lessons with one or other of the Marauders. Once they were all sitting together Harry no longer had the awkward problem of trying to think of things to say as Sirius and James kept the conversation going for him. Sirius seemed to making a conscious effort to include him which he was grateful for even if he wasn't entirely sure why he was being so nice.

All in all his mood was pretty good although it did take a slight dip when he found out he had double potions as his first lesson. He was with Sirius so he was dragged out of breakfast by his wrist to go down to the dungeons.

"Ok so we have potions. That's… this way! Wait… damn, we're with the Slytherins. Ah well, did you ever put firecrackers in people's pockets? It's great, we can do that today if you want cos the others are in care of magical creatures. Gotta do something to amuse ourselves right?"

Harry barely restrained hysterical laughter. It seemed that teenage Sirius had exactly the same problem with talking as his future self. By that he meant once he started he just went on and on and on…

"Do you _have_ any firecrackers?"

Sirius grinned and pulled a handful of multi-coloured sticks out of his pocket.

"I always come prepared."

"Ok, let's play a game then."

Sirius cocked his eyebrow.

"Go on, I'm intrigued."

"Whoever gets the most Slytherins to squeal wins. Loser has to do one task picked by the winner."

"You're so going down."

"No I'm not. I have a game plan you see…"

"Oh yeah? Care to share?"

"Can't win if I have your weapons!"

Harry snatched the firecrackers from Sirius' hand and sprinted down the corridor to potions. He burst through the door, panting, about 3 seconds before Sirius who glared at him and hissed "cheat!" before collapsing into the seat next to him.

Professor Slughorn was already in the room and didn't seem overly impressed by their red faces, panting and random fits of giggles but decided to ignore it obviously thinking that they would calm down soon. They were seventh years after all… He was wrong. The lesson ended in both of them getting a detention when Lucius Malfoy jumped out of his chair with a massive, flaming hole in his robes and Sirius could no longer contain his laughter and ended up choking on his own tongue. They both agreed that it was worth it though.

"You're a bad influence on me Black. My first day and I already have a detention."

"You are blatantly trying to avoid the main point here."

"And that is?"

"That I won."

"You so didn't."

"I did! I was counting and don't lie, I know you know I'm right."

"I don't know anything of the sort."

"Liar."

"I'm not…"

"Liar!"

"You didn't…"

"LIAR!!"

"Fine then you won. But only because you're beginning to embarrass me with your yelling."

"Bullshit, I won and you know it. And now you have to do a challenge as per the rules."

"Fine, what do you want me to do?"

Sirius scratched his chin in thought and looked around.

"Give me time. I will come up with the world's greatest ever challenge."

"Alright then."

Harry wasn't particularly worried; he was pretty sure Sirius would have forgotten about the challenge by lunch-time.

* * *

The rest of the day went quite quickly. The work wasn't too difficult and the teachers seemed to mostly ignore him so long as he wasn't too loud. Nevertheless, by the time Harry traipsed up to the common room he was exhausted.

He found Remus, Peter and James sitting in an equally exhausted looking heap on one of the chairs. James saw him and called him over, asking how his first day had been. He replied that it had been fine and not that different from his old school.

They chatted for a while about nothing in particular, luckily Remus seemed to be getting more comfortable around him and James never ran out of things to say anyway so there weren't any awkward silences. He was surprised by Peter. Sure, he wasn't as interesting as the others but every once in a while he was quite funny. Somehow Harry thought it would take a bit more than "quite funny" to make him like the other boy though.

Their lazy chatting was broken up by a very irritated looking Sirius storming in through the portrait hole and flopping onto the floor in front of them.

They all looked at him and then at each other. Remus decided to ask.

"Go on then Sirius, what's wrong?"

Sirius let out a dramatic sigh and waved his arms around.

"This school is what's wrong!"

"What about this school is wrong Sirius?"

"Well, I was walking out of charms and I was look around and Sadie Jackson came up to me and was all "Hi Siri, how are you?" and I said I was fine but I had to go cos you know she's nice-ish but she's hardly the prettiest bulb in the box or the brightest, but that got me thinking that I really need to find a girl because Jamie's got Lily and you've got your books so I'll be bored without one and then I realised…"

"That you are a shallow git?" Moony volunteered, earning himself a glare from Sirius.

"I realised, I've run out of girls. I have now officially got off with every single girl that is in my age range and not ugly in this school."

"There must be at least one you haven't gone out with yet."

"No there really isn't. I didn't believe it at first either but then I went over every name in our year and the two years below and I have definitely gone out with all of them."

"What about Jess whatsername? In the year below, she's quite pretty."

"Nope, went out with her last year."

"Really?"

"Yup."

"Oh… what about…?"

"See! There's no one."

"Could you redo them?"

"How boring would that be?"

"You should have thought of that before shouldn't you?"

"S'not my fault! They're all just so boring and… girlish."

"Funny thing about girls that, they do tend to be quite girlish."

"Oh ha ha. Take the piss all you want. Don't make any effort to help me in my time of need. I give up, I'm just gonna have to move onto the boys."

James spit out the mouthful of water he had just taken.

"You are joking right?"

Sirius rolled his eyes.

"Yes James, I'm joking. Don't worry, you're safe. You're not my type anyway…"

Remus laughed at the insulted look on James' face. After a few more minutes of talking over Sirius' problem, Harry left them and went to bed.

* * *

A/N: Go on, review… you know you want to :)


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: I'm back!!!

Applause? No? Moving swiftly on…

Sorry about the stupidly long wait. Computer troubles etc etc but it's all fixed now and I'm posting 2 chapters to make up for it. You probably don't care but humour me anyway.

Chapter 7

Harry settled in amazingly quickly. After a couple of weeks it seemed like he'd always been there. He knew he wasn't quite one of the Marauders but they made him feel like they wanted him around and he spent most of his time with them.

He'd made some other friends too though. He got on pretty well with all of the other seventh year Gryffindors and most of the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs. Of course, there was no love lost between him and the Slytherins; things don't change that much in twenty years.

He and Sirius were already firm friends. James spent a lot of time with Lily and Remus was quieter so Sirius jumped at the chance to have someone else to mess around with and Harry loved it. Sirius was just so completely over the top and random and fun. Harry had never really been able to just be crazy and immature all the time with the whole saving the world thing and with Hermione trying to get him to work. It seemed ironic that he got that chance in his last year.

Well now he was making up for it in spades.

He sometimes felt a bit guilty that he didn't miss his own time more.

He missed the people there sure but he had a feeling that he should be a lot more miserable than he was. Actually, if he was honest, he wasn't miserable at all unless you counted a slight homesickness.

That was why, when Dumbledore called him into his office and told him it could be a few months before they could send him back, he wasn't all too devastated.

* * *

Harry and Sirius were in their fifth detention that term. Apparently five in two weeks was a record for seventh year pupils. They were working in silence. It wasn't an awkward silence but Harry still found it weird considering Sirius never usually shut up.

"Sirius?"

Sirius looked up from his job and raised his eyebrows.

"You ok?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." He sounded very upbeat but he still didn't really manage to meet Harry's eyes as he said it.

"Ok, you just seem… quieter than usual."

"Oh right… I was just thinking."

"About?"

He looked at Harry like he was trying to decide something.

"About James and Lily… can I tell you secret?"

"Anything."

"It's just… James told me yesterday he's going to ask her to marry him."

Harry had a feeling that wasn't the whole story.

"But that's good right?"

"Well, yeah, I guess but… I dunno, she's alright but it's like, the minute they got together she takes up all his time, and I thought that would stop when they'd been together a while but it hasn't and now there's this. And everyone's growing up so much, you know? I mean, getting married! That's so… adulty."

Harry laughed. He couldn't help it. Sirius looked so distraught. Sirius didn't seem to appreciate him finding humour in the situation however.

"What's so funny?"

"You are."

Now Sirius looked very annoyed. Its one thing to think you're being laughed at but quite another to be proved right. Harry thought he should explain himself.

"James isn't going to desert you Sirius, he's your best mate. And you're right, it is "adulty" but everyone's got to grow up eventually right?"

Sirius thought about the point for a second.

"I know that, I just… I don't want to grow up."

Harry felt a strong urge to go over and hug him but he felt that might be pushing their new friendship just a little so he settled for throwing the sponge he was using to clean the table at him.

"Don't then."

Sirius grinned and picked up his bucket of water and emptied it over Harry's head. By the time they were done with their detention they were both thoroughly soaked but Sirius seemed a lot happier.

Sirius wrung out his hair as they walked up to the common room and shook it all over Harry.

"Are you going on the Hogsmeade trip this weekend?"

"Yeah."

"Ok I will too then. I wasn't going to cos James is going with Lily and Peter's got a detention and Remus's… visiting his parents, but I will if you come with me. It's no fun alone."

'Tell me about it' Harry thought, but didn't say it aloud as Sirius didn't know that he had spent the whole summer there alone. That could lead to some awkward questions.

"Yeah sure, I'll come with you, it'll be fun." He smiled at Sirius who grinned back and whacked his arm.

"Ow! What was that for?"

"Tag! You're it!"

Sirius ran away laughing and Harry rolled his eyes before following after him.

He followed the sound of Sirius' laughter for a while before he lost him. He looked around. Sirius had to be around somewhere; Harry had seen him go round the corner a few seconds before. The corridor was empty and it made him feel a bit on edge, which was the reason why he squealed so loud when he felt arms grab him from behind and pick him up.

Sirius laughed and shook him around a bit before dropping him on the floor. The action was so familiar to Harry that he actually turned round to make sure it was the younger Sirius, not the one he had left behind a couple of months ago.

Sirius was doubled up laughing.

"Your face!"

"Well I'm glad my face is so amusing to you."

"It really is."

Harry stormed off in mock anger but Sirius just followed behind him, reminding him how shocked he'd looked and how loud he screamed.

Harry was so busy trying to storm effectively without laughing that he didn't look where he was going and crashed straight into Lily Evan's, which set Sirius off laughing again.

"Sorry, I didn't see you."

Lily smiled and nodded before walking on. Harry watched her leave.

He had hardly said two words to her since he got there. It was difficult to speak to her when he couldn't give a good reason why he wanted to. "Hi you're my mum" wouldn't really work. He decided to make an effort though. He didn't want to go home never having got to know his mum.

* * *


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Harry was fairly confident he could get through the time without being discovered, although there were some close calls.

His main problem was that he didn't know a lot of things that people took for granted that everyone knew and that he forgot that some things hadn't happened yet.

For example, when there is no such thing as a self-stirring cauldron, people tend to look at you weirdly when you say that a shop in Hogsmeade has them in five different colours. Fortunately, people tended to pass it off as the new guy being a bit dumb and Harry was fine with that. No one expects anything from you when they think you're stupid.

The only person who seemed to pick up on his mistakes was Remus. He'd always been very observant, Harry knew that, and now it was working against him.

Of course he didn't think "oh he's clearly from the future" but he did start asking a lot of awkward questions about Durmstrang and his life that Harry just didn't have the answers to. It was as if he was determined to unravel Harry's mind and find out exactly what it was he wasn't telling them. Harry hoped he wouldn't manage.

The day after his talk with Sirius in detention James did indeed propose to Lily. However, it didn't go quite as smoothly as everybody thought it would. For one, she said no.

Harry had gone up to the common room with Sirius after potions to find James sitting on the couch with Remus with his head in his hands. He jumped when they came in. The room was completely empty apart from them. After it became apparent that no one was going to offer an explanation, Sirius asked.

"Ok, so what happened?"

James waved a hand for Remus to explain.

"Prongs asked Lily to marry him."

Sirius whistled.

"Yeah you're right Jamie; that is a catastrophe. You must be dead miserable."

"She said no."

Neither of them had been expecting that, and it showed on their faces.

"Oh… but…why?"

James looked up.

"She didn't say. She just said she couldn't and practically ran away. God, I'm so stupid!"

Harry was especially confused by this new development.

"Maybe she just needs some more time?"

"Or maybe she just doesn't really love me that much."

They all glanced at each other worriedly.

They spent two hours trying to cheer him up by sympathizing with him, joking and telling him to get over it in turn but nothing would cheer him up. They only just managed to drag him down to get food and when they came back up he disappeared into the dorm straight away.

"I just don't get it. I was so sure he'd finally won her over. I mean, they spend every waking moment together for Christ's sake." Sirius was pacing and rubbing his forehead. He seemed completely confused by the whole matter and Harry couldn't blame him. He was pretty confused himself. Remus however, didn't seem at all fazed by it. That was Remus though; he always seemed to understand things no one else did.

"She probably just needs thinking time. They'll be fine. Anyway, it's Prongs. When has he ever been miserable for more than a few hours?"

It turned out that Remus was wrong about that one thing at least. The next day, when they went down to breakfast, James was still depressed. It was a weekend but he insisted on hanging around in the dorm and walking around the grounds on his own.

His bad mood sent Peter running to his detention and even Remus, who was always so understanding, was irritated with him by the time he had to 'go visit his mum'. Harry and Sirius offered to stay with him but eventually he got annoyed so they went to Hogsmeade as they had previously planned.

"I've never seen him so worked up about anything before. I mean, he's really not an emotional guy."

Harry nodded and sipped his butterbeer. He couldn't really think of anything to contribute to the conversation other than "well I was always so sure that they got married" as he hardly knew James, due to him spending all his time with Lily, and he thought that might give him away a bit so he settled for listening attentively and nodding in the right places. Eventually Sirius seemed to realise that the topic of conversation was less than thrilling for Harry. He drained his glass and grabbed Harry's wrist.

"Come on."

He practically dragged his friend out of the three broomsticks and the pair walked down the busy road.

"Where are we going?"

"You'll see."

"But I want to know!"

"Tough, you'll find out when we get there."

"Sirius, tell me!"

Harry whined and pulled his cloak around him tightly. The butterbeer had warmed him a bit but not enough to completely keep out the cold.

Sirius smirked at his pleading voice but said nothing, choosing instead to hurry ahead in silence. Harry muttered under his breath. Sirius still had the ability to be the most irritating person in the world.

They didn't stop until they reached the shrieking shack. Harry dug his hands deep into his pockets and looked over at Sirius who was running his fingers over the wire fence. His face was screwed up in concentration. Strangely he didn't seem to be cold.

That wasn't really strange though. Sirius never got cold. Harry froze at the tiniest hint of frost but Sirius would be able to sit in the snow in his pants before he began to shiver. Harry was interrupted from his thoughts of how unfair this was by Sirius making a triumphant noise.

"Ah ha!"

Harry looked at him. He was standing a bit further up the hill, pointing at a perfectly normal bit of fencing with a huge grin on his face.

"Found it!"

"Um… found what?"

Sirius rolled his eyes at Harry as though he was an idiot but Harry thought it was a perfectly reasonable question; there were miles of fencing going around the old house and it all looked pretty much the same as this bit.

"Watch and learn young grasshopper."

He pulled his wand out of his pocket and tapped the fence, muttering something under his breath. At first nothing happened but then blue sparks gathered around the wire in the shape of a gate. When they settled Sirius pulled the newly made latch across and opened it grinning at him.

"After you."

Harry would have asked about the gate but he knew how Sirius could get if you admitted he could do something you couldn't so he kept his mouth shut and lead the way through the gate and up the path to the door of the shrieking shack, taking a brief look over his shoulder to see the gate disappearing.

"Alohomora."

The lock on the old door slid back and Sirius swung it open easily.

"Welcome to the shrieking shack."

Harry looked around.

He had been in there before but it looked different in the light. And there didn't seem to be quite as much trashed furniture as before. In fact, when he looked properly he realised that there were a lot of things that weren't there the last time he had visited: Stacks of books in the corner that he recognised from school, a pile of indoor fireworks and various other pranks and a lot of sweets although most of them turned out to be empty wrappers. It just generally looked a lot more lived in.

"This is our special place: Me, Remus, James and Pete. No one else knows how to get in; they think it's haunted. There are two entrances but the one we used is easiest. The other one involves crawling under a violent tree, not pretty." Sirius grimaced. Clearly the passage under the whomping willow was not a favourite of his. "We haven't been down here recently… Nice though right?"

Harry wasn't sure that he would describe it as nice. There were still a lot of broken things lying around and something that looked suspiciously like blood on one of the walls, but Sirius was looking at him waiting for an answer and it wasn't rocket science to work out what he was supposed to say.

"Yeah, nice."

Sirius smiled and raised an eyebrow at him.

"It's ok you don't have to lie; I know it's not really nice. It's a dump. But I still like it."

He collapsed on one of the beaten up couches and patted the seat next to him, Harry joined him. Sirius picked up a bag of fizzing whizzbees from the floor and offered him one. They sat in comfortable silence as Harry continued to look around.

In the corner there was a kind of fridge; the marauders did seem slightly obsessed with food and there were some pictures around. They were stuck on the walls randomly and leaning up against lamps and a couple were stuck on the ceiling. Some of them were pictures of bands and quidditch teams, some moved and some didn't and there were quite a lot of the four marauders grinning out, waving and jumping out at each other when the others weren't looking. They ranged from first year; which were especially funny to look at as the thought of his dad or godfather being that small was amazing to Harry (not to mention how cute Remus was when he was 11), to ones from about a year before. They were all quite dusty though. It looked like Sirius had been telling the truth when he said they hadn't been there for a while (except for, obviously, on the full moons but Harry wasn't supposed to know that). He looked over at Sirius and saw the other boy lost in thought. He decided to snap him out of it as thinking generally made Sirius gloomy.

"So what do you do around here?"

"Huh? Oh, eat, throw stuff, lie around, scheme. Pretty much the same as what we do everywhere else but here we get to do it just us, without worrying about everyone else."

"Sirius, you never worry about anyone else."

"Yes but here it's not an option to worry about anyone else cos there isn't anyone. So if I did decide to worry that I might be annoying people I would have plenty of time to shake it out of my system before I actually came into contact with them."

"Good to know you have it so well thought out. Heaven forbid you would actually mind irritating someone."

"I know right?"

Harry laughed and grabbed a chocolate frog from the pile by his feet. It never stopped amazing him how easy it was to talk to Sirius. When he had first moved in with him he'd expected it to be awkward; they didn't really know each other very well at the time after all, but it wasn't and he'd settled in so quickly that it felt like he'd always lived there and things were no different with the younger Sirius.

He looked out of the window. It was grey outside and there was frost around the window frames. It wasn't much warmer inside; he supposed there wasn't much point in it being heated when the only person that was supposed to go in was a werewolf who went there once a month. He could see his breath in front of his face and he could see another cloud of steam next to him where he knew Sirius was, even though he couldn't actually see him without turning round. He became transfixed by the white clouds and the way his were smaller and quicker and Sirius' came slower. Harry could see Sirius in his mind, lying back against the torn cushions with his eyes shut, relaxing. He turned round to look at the other boy and saw that his image had been exactly right. He smiled to himself and returned to looking out of the window. After a moment Sirius sat up and leant forward, looking at Harry.

"What was it like at your old school?"

Harry was surprised. Sirius never asked about his "old school". That was Remus' job.

"Pretty much like here really."

"No I mean what were the people like? Did you have a lot of friends? A girlfriend? Were your friends anything like us? That kind of thing."

Harry was relieved; this kind of question was way easier to answer than Remus' factual ones. He didn't even have to lie very much. It still didn't feel right though.

"Well, the people were pretty much the same; there were some I got on with and some not so much. I had two best friends and no girlfriend. They weren't really like you but then I'm pretty sure no one is."

"Tell me about your friends."

Harry hadn't really wanted to go into detail but he had a feeling Sirius might think it was a bit weird if he refused to say anything.

"They're called Ron and Hermione. They're… they're hard to explain really. They get on my nerves sometimes but I love them anyway."

"Do you miss them?"

"I dunno. I don't think about them that much but when I do I miss them. I miss them a bit now."

"Wish I could meet them. If they're like you we'd probably get on."

"They're not like me really."

Sirius just nodded, looking quite distant. Harry knew he was thinking about his friends who he loved so much. Peter who disappeared all the time without explanation, Remus who had to work all the time to keep up with the things he missed when he was ill and James who didn't have enough time for Sirius because of his girlfriend, although maybe that would change now they were having problems.

"How'd you get that?"

Sirius pointed at the lightning bolt scar on his forehead and Harry froze.

"I uh- dunno really… accident. When I was a baby."

Fortunately that seemed like a good enough answer for Sirius and he stopped the questions.

"We should probably get back now; make sure James hasn't thrown himself out of a window."

Harry nodded and stood up, brushing the dust off his robes. He turned around and crashed straight into Sirius who fell onto the floor very inelegantly.

"Ooph!"

Harry laughed and held out his hand to help Sirius up. Sirius grabbed it and dragged Harry down with him. He landed on Sirius' stomach, knocking all the air out of him. Harry rolled his eyes and smacked his friend round the head.

"Ow!"

Sirius complained but somehow he couldn't pull off looking truly hurt when he was still cracking up with laughter so instead he settled for pushing Harry off his stomach into the couch.

"Ow! Shit Siri that hurt!"

Sirius stopped laughing when he saw Harry's serious face. Harry pushed himself up and rubbed his arm with a pained expression. Sirius jumped to his feet and stood in front of him trying to get a look at his arm.

"Sorry mate, I didn't mean it to hurt."

"Well it did."

"Aw come on Harry stop being such a girl…"

Sirius trailed off as he saw the smirk on Harry's face.

"You little…"

He tackled Harry and they landed back on the floor in a heap. Harry wriggled around to try and get free but there was no chance; Sirius was too strong. He tried to look up at Sirius but he was too close to make out anything but his grey eyes, which were sparkling with laughter. Sirius' weight was pressing down on him, not heavy but definitely noticeable. He thought about trying to move but somehow he didn't particularly want to, he had already given up struggling.

Sirius didn't seem to want to move much either. He'd stopped laughing and was staring at Harry which made him feel a little uncomfortable. After what seemed like hours, Sirius began to pull away, still staring. Then he seemed to have a sudden change of heart and leant back in again, this time not stopping until their lips connected.

It was hardly a kiss. More like their lips just happened to rest against each other's for a few seconds. Even so, the feeling those few seconds gave Harry was enough to warm him up more than a crate of butterbeer and leave him more confused than the world's strongest firewhiskey.

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

A/N: I didn't realise how long this chapter was until I copied and pasted it. And something actually happened!! That definitely means you should review


	9. Chapter 9

A/N: Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter. I didn't get time to some of them I really appreciated it. Also, if you happen to read this:

**Smile like a fish-** I love your name!! it made me smile.

Anyway, here's more…

Chapter 9

The journey back to the castle ended up a confused blur in Harry's mind.

Sirius had jerked back like he'd been stung and stood up, mumbling and brushing imaginary dust off his robes as Harry recovered and clambered to his own feet. They spent the whole journey up the twisted footpath to the castle in complete silence. It wasn't the comfortable kind that Harry was used to with Sirius either; it was most definitely an awkward silence and Harry couldn't bring himself to break it.

Sirius disappeared into the shower the minute they got back and spent an insane amount of time washing his hair. By the time he got out James and Peter were back in the dorm so the tension between them wasn't quite so obvious but Harry still couldn't help noticing how Sirius couldn't quite meet his eyes. He went to bed early to try and escape the atmosphere but it didn't really help; he couldn't sleep with all the thoughts swirling around his head, tripping over each other and falling flat on their faces before they had a chance to make any sense. He heard the other three sneak out of the room and checked his watch. It was eleven o'clock. They'd be going to see Remus at the shrieking shack.

Lying awake in the empty room made it feel like the Summer Holidays all over again.

He lay back with his eyes shut and waited for sleep to wash over him but it wouldn't come. Somehow all he could do was lie, wide awake, and think about how he had just kissed his godfather…

Well ok, he wasn't his godfather yet but it was still Sirius; crazy, annoying, fun Sirius who got detentions everyday and still liked to climb trees when he was 30 even though he couldn't climb to save his life. The same Sirius who used to sit up all night with him after the war when he was still having nightmares, trying to be cheerful and pretend not to be tired when Harry could see him yawning.

Only he didn't know that yet.

There was a more obvious problem with him kissing Sirius which was that he wasn't gay, and Sirius was a guy.

'_No shit Einstein!'_

He'd never fancied a guy. Never ever, nope- he liked girls. Girls.

Sirius wasn't gay anyway. There was no way he could have lived with him for nearly a year and not known that. He never seemed to have girlfriends though… no he was DEFINITELY not gay. Besides teenage Sirius was a complete manwhore. He'd got off with nearly every girl in the school. How could he be gay? Just like Harry. Completely straight.

'_Yeah, about as straight as a circle'_

Harry blocked out the voice it his head. Clearly it was insane. Anyway, there were loads of explanations of why Sirius might have done it. It was probably just a very awkward mistake. It would be forgotten by tomorrow so what was the point thinking about it.

Still, he couldn't quite manage to forget the feeling it had given him. Not like with Cho or Ginny. That had been average at the most but with Sirius… they'd hardly touched and his head was spinning and his insides were warm.

And he had to admit that Sirius was attractive as far as guys went. Not that HE found him attractive personally but he could see how he might. If he was gay that is.

Harry could see Sirius' face in his mind. He was smiling and his eyes shone and his hair was all over the place but he still managed to look elegant and beautiful.

'_Wait, beautiful? What?'_

Maybe it wouldn't be so awful if something came out of this. He was only there for a while. Maybe it would be good. Just to find out. Not that he WAS gay but if Sirius said that he was and he wanted something to happen with them… who would it hurt? No one knew who it was and it's not like Sirius would remember in the future. Maybe it wouldn't be too awful. Maybe he'd consider it.

You know… if Sirius brought it up.

* * *

Harry wasn't sure when he'd finally gotten to sleep but it definitely felt too early when he was woken up the next day by a very loud foghorn in the room. He rolled over and pulled the curtains back just in time to see two pillows fly at James' head, one from Sirius' bed and one from Remus'. James was perched on the trunk at the end of his bed grinning like a maniac.

"Rise and shine boys, we're going to go play quidditch!"

Peter groaned and Sirius swore at him. Remus stuck his head under his spare pillow and muttered under his breath. Harry checked his clock. It was 7:20am. On a Sunday.

"Aw don't be like that you lazy sods it'll be fun."

He dodged to the side to avoid the next flying object which turned out to be a lamp thrown from Sirius' direction. He wasn't good with early mornings.

"Sorry Pads did I interrupt your beauty sleep? Honestly, you're such a girl sometimes."

James fell backwards onto his bed as a heavy potions book hit him square in the face.

"Fine then, I'm going to breakfast. You better be up by the time I get back so we can go have fun."

After he disappeared out of the door Remus stuck his head out from underneath his pillow.

"Well he seems happier."

Sirius groaned.

"Yeah. And I think I liked him better when he was depressed. Least then he didn't wake me up."

"Go back to sleep then."

"I can't NOW, I'm awake. I'm going to have a shower."

"Again?"

"Yes, is it so wrong to want to be clean?"

"You practically live in the shower. James was right. You are a girl."

This time it was Remus who got a pillow in his face. By the time he had removed it and sat up to get his revenge Sirius had disappeared into the bathroom.

* * *

By 8 o'clock James had got his wish and they were all standing by the Quidditch pitch. The cold wasn't doing much for their grumpy, tired moods. James however, was wide awake and jumping around.

"Ok guys; get your brooms from the cupboard so we can play. Come on!"

Sirius was still muttering under his breath and refusing to budge so Harry had to push him towards the cupboard.

The thing about quidditch with the Marauders was that it wasn't really as much quidditch as a big wrestling match in the sky.

James was serious about playing and he was a good flyer, Harry could see everyone had been right about that, but Remus was awful and Peter could hardly stay on his broom if it came further than two metres off the floor. Sirius flew pretty much the same way he did everything else; fast and excited and a bit like an over-sized dog.

He seemed to have gotten over his tiredness fairly quickly after leaving the ground and had decided to annoy James as much as physically possible by completely mucking up his quidditch game. After about five minutes he was swooping around, cackling as James chased after him, yelling at him and trying to hit him on the head with a quaffle. Harry watched them for a bit then flew down to where Remus was hovering by one of the goalposts. Remus smiled when he saw him coming. He looked exhausted but fairly happy.

"Getting out the way? Good idea."

Harry turned to watch them again. Remus turned his head and had to grab onto the goalpost to keep his balance.

"James seems happier today."

"Hmm."

Harry looked at Remus. He didn't look convinced.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, it's a bit sudden isn't it? I don't think he's as over it as he'd like us to think."

Harry thought he was probably right but he wasn't about to complain if James wanted to act cheerful. He was about to reply but Sirius chose that moment to crash straight into the two of them and all three fell onto the muddy pitch below.

Luckily they hadn't been very high so there were no serious injuries but Harry was pretty winded as he had been underneath Sirius and Remus.

Sirius rolled onto his back and groaned. By this time James had landed and was laughing hysterically at his pile of friends.

"Shit Sirius, do you ever look where you're going?"

Harry was too out of breath to speak but if he had been able to he would have agreed with Remus. Sirius didn't reply so Remus stood up and helped Harry to his feet.

"Are you ok?"

He managed to gasp out a yes but Remus didn't believe him, mostly because he couldn't stand on his own.

"I think you should go to the hospital wing."

"No I'm fine, really."

"Sure you are."

Remus looked at Sirius who was still lying on the floor.

"Looks like he could do with going up too. Sirius, go up to the hospital wing with Harry."

"Remus I'm fine, just a bit winded."

But Remus was having none of it.

"Harry, getting it checked won't kill you. You can hardly walk."

Sirius had finally managed to stand up and he wasn't looking overly keen on the idea either.

"There's no point in going up if he's ok Moony. It's a really long way."

"And the exercise will be good for you. Stop complaining and go."

If took a while before they both agreed to go but Remus won, he always did. About ten minutes later they were walking up the path to the school and the awkwardness that seemed to have disappeared while they were around the others was back with a vengeance.

Remus has instructed Sirius to put his arm around Harry's waist to help him walk and as hard as Harry tried, he could not ignore it. It was just an arm and there were about four layers of clothing between his skin and Sirius' but it was still horribly close and he hated how much he liked it.

"Harry, about yesterday…"

Harry nodded but didn't speak, he wasn't entirely sure he was capable of coherent speech.

"Yeah well, about that, it was an accident you know? Like, I'm not gay or anything. I like girls. So urm, it shouldn't be awkward with us right? I mean, we're mates yeah?"

Harry tried to ignore the sinking sensation in his stomach and nodded.

"Yeah, yeah I was- I was gonna say the same thing. Just an accident."

"Yeah."

Sirius nodded like he was satisfied and that was the end of the conversation.

"So erm, I'm sorry I landed on you back there. I wasn't really looking."

"It's ok, I'm not really that injured, just Remus being overdramatic."

Sirius laughed even though it hadn't been funny. It relieved the tension a bit and soon they were talking again. To anyone watching they would seem completely normal but Harry knew something was different. Their conversation was slightly more forced than usual and he could feel Sirius's finger twitching, nervous, by his side.

That night Harry was awake, again. Thinking about Sirius, again. It was turning into a bad habit of his. This time he was trying to feel relieved that it was sorted out with as little complication as possible while trying desperately hard to ignore the churning feeling in the pit of his stomach and prickling at the back of his eyes. He sighed and rolled over for the hundredth time that night. If he had tried listening to the sounds around him he would have heard someone else do exactly the same thing.

* * *

A/N: review please!!


	10. Chapter 10

A/N: HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!!

It's nearly the end of the day for me and everyone's kind of wiped out so I thought I'd come up here and post you a chapter. Kind of like a Christmas present.

Not a great present granted but it's the thought that counts right?

Chapter 10

After having very little sleep the night before, Harry was definitely not in the mood for double potions on Monday morning. Unfortunately he didn't have much of a choice in the matter and before he knew it he found himself trudging through the door of the dungeons and slouching into his normal seat beside Sirius who seemed to have already fallen asleep on the desk before the lesson had even started. Harry prodded him with his wand as Slughorn walked in and he yelped, earning both of them a glare from the professor.

"Good morning class."

Harry grinned as he heard Sirius muttering beside him.

"Good morning my arse."

"Today we will be learning to make Elixir Fervidus. It is a very complex potion used to promote energy and excitement in the drinker."

"Great, just what I need when I'm half asleep, something complicated to make."

Harry tried to bite back a laugh but Slughorn saw and glared at them again.

"Mr Black, Mr James, if you wish to get yet ANOTHER detention in this class you are going the right way about it. Now as I was saying, it is very complex so I need your full attention…"

Professor Slughorn proceeded to go through the ingredients and instructions. Harry didn't hear most of it as Sirius had chosen that moment to make a shark out of a piece of parchment and weave it in and out of the table legs with his wand, muttering the theme to Jaws under his breath.

"Begin."

Harry and Sirius looked up and saw everyone going to the cupboard in pairs to get ingredients and realised they had no clue what to do. Sirius stood up and stretched lazily before turning with his back to Slughorn and leaning over the table to talk to Harry. Harry knew that from behind he would look very calm and casual.

"Did you get any of that?"

"Not a word."

"Shit."

"Yeah."

"Ok… I'll go and copy what the others are picking up; you see if you can find a page in the book that tells us what to do."

Harry doubted there would be one; they'd stopped working out of the book a while ago, but he nodded and began to flick through anyway. He was right, it wasn't in there. Sirius came back with a pile of ingredients and laid them out on the desk.

"There was definitely some of this, and this, and something that was the same colour as this… and something else that was either this, this or this."

This was going to be a disaster.

Sirius lit a fire under the cauldron with his wand and randomly selected one of the many ingredients to pour in. It was purple and shimmery and fizzed a bit as it went in but there was no massive explosion so he took that as encouragement to continue.

"Your turn."

Harry picked up a clump of pointy leaves and dropped them in. The mixture spat a bit and they jumped back but nothing else happened so they stirred it a bit as that was what everyone else seemed to be doing before picking another ingredient.

This one was a grey powder that looked a bit like pepper. However, this was a bad choice as the second Sirius sprinkled it on top of the already violent looking potion it erupted in fluorescent flames. Harry coughed and waved away the smoke, peering into the cauldron.

"Is it supposed to be that colour?"

Harry could hear a heavy breathing somewhere above his head.

"No Mr James, it is not meant to be that colour. Something you would know if the two of you had been paying any attention at all to what I told you."

"We have another detention don't we?"

"Correct Mr Black, I will see you tonight after supper."

Slughorn lumbered away and Sirius looked into the cauldron sheepishly.

"I think it's a nice colour."

* * *

"Again?!"

Sirius and Harry were getting ready to go off to their detention and had just told Remus where they were going. He did not look impressed. That was probably partly because Peter was also busy so they were leaving him alone with James, who had sunk back into his depression after realising that he had to do his homework alone.

"Sorry mate, we'll try and be good next time."

Remus stared at Sirius in disbelief.

"No you won't. Go on then, have fun cleaning out toilets."

Harry hoped they wouldn't have to do that. They hadn't had to yet but it was only a matter of time before Slughorn came up with the idea.

They had to run most of the way down to the dungeons as they were already running late and when they got there they found Slughorn waiting for them.

"There you are. Right, sit down."

They sat in the seats he had gestured to.

"I have two tasks for you tonight. Firstly, I need to give grades for today's lessons so I will need you to test these for me." He waved his hand over a row of vials filled with bright orange potion. "I will watch and examine the effects. Then I will be leaving you to clean all of this up. I expect it to be immaculate by the time I get back."

Sirius groaned; he was awful at cleaning and the first years had been the last lesson of the day, meaning the room was a complete tip.

"Right Mr Black, you first."

Slughorn handed Sirius one of the potions which Sirius eyed suspiciously before drinking. Almost immediately he cracked up laughing. Tears poured down his face and he tried not to choke and he had to grasp Harry's arm for support.

"Hmm… Too much alihotsy."

Sirius spluttered and choked again and Harry had to hold him up to stop him collapsing into a laughing puddle on the floor.

"Your turn Mr James."

Harry picked up another vial and drank its contents; this was made a lot more difficult by Sirius clinging on to his shoulder and he spilt most of it on the floor. Something else to clean up later. Luckily for Harry his seemed to have been made more correctly and instead of being reduced to the hysterical state that Sirius was in he just felt a rush of excitement and an overwhelming urge to jump around and squeal. Of course, the jumping around meant he dropped Sirius and his friend was left rolling around the floor laughing so hard he was in pain.

Slughorn reversed the effects and handed them each another one. This continued until they had tried every one of the potions and had felt every effect from hysterical laughing to uncontrollable tears to urges to spin around in circles until they fell over. By the time they were done the room was considerably messier than it was before and they could see it was going to take ages to clean. Especially since they couldn't use magic, some of the potion ingredients lying around were far too temperamental for that. It didn't help that Slughorn hadn't managed to completely reverse the effects of so many potions and they were both still a bit jittery. After half an hour the room was just as messy as before and instead of making any effort to tidy it the two boys were sitting on one of the desks playing tiddlywinks with two frogs they'd found in the supplies cupboard.

"When I'm old and rich I'm going to do this all the time."

"What? Abuse frogs?"

"No, play stupid games and not give a damn about anything boring."

Harry smiled and launched his frog into the cup.

"My point. That would be 12-1 to me."

"I don't like this game."

"Only because you're losing."

Sirius pouted.

"Fine only because I'm losing. But now it's my turn to pick a game."

"Go on then."

Sirius pretended to think but Harry knew what was coming. He knew Sirius too well.

"Tag!"

Sirius reached out to hit Harry's arm but Harry's seeker reflexes were too fast and he dodged out of the way to the other end of the room.

"Come back here bitch!"

Harry laughed and dodged again but this time he was less successful and fell over, landing with his arse stuck in one of the boxes in the supply cupboard. Sirius laughed evilly and shut the door on him.

"Byeee!"

"Sirius!! Sirius open the door!"

"What's the magic words?"

"I swear to God I will THROTTLE you Sirius Black. When I get out of here you are a dead man!"

"Well that's not much incentive for me to let you out then is it?"

Harry wriggled out of his box and hammered on the door, trying to push it open from the inside.

"Sirius let me out!!"

No reply.

"Not funny Sirius, come on."

"Sirius?"

Harry stopped hammering and listened to the room outside. He couldn't hear anything. But Sirius wouldn't have left in him in there… would he?

Harry made choking sounds and screamed.

"Shit!!! Ow, Sirius!! Devil's snare, can't… breathe…"

He spluttered and sat down, making an unnecessary noise about it. Sirius opened the door with one eyebrow cocked.

"Very funny Harry, I know there's no devil's snare in there."

"You opened the door though didn't you?"

Harry smirked and slid out of the cupboard sideways, trying not to get too close to Sirius as he did it. Unfortunately Sirius wasn't in a mood for begin cooperative and stood directly in the way, an evil grin on his face.

"Oh no you don't. Back in your cupboard."

He pushed Harry back towards his box but this time Harry grabbed onto Sirius' robes and they both fell in the cupboard. Sirius landed with his face in a box of feathers and came up spluttering curses at Harry.

"Oh stop being a wimp Black, you asked for it. Come on, let's get out of here."

Harry stood up and pushed against the closed door. It didn't budge.

"Er, Sirius…"

"We're stuck aren't we?"

"Well… yeah."

"Brilliant. Oh well, I get this box."

He sat back in the box of feathers with a contented look on his face and Harry had to smile. He looked around and found a cushion to sit on. At least it was a big, well-stocked cupboard.

After a while feather fights begin to get boring though and after an hours of sitting in the cupboard with no one to rescue them it was beginning to be a little less fun.

"I wish there was food in here."

"Do you ever think about anything other than food?"

"Yes."

"Name one other thing."

Sirius thought for a bit.

"Loads of things."

Harry looked disbelieving and blew a single feather at him.

"You do realise we will probably be here until tomorrow right? Slughorn will just think we left already and lock up."

Harry had already though of that and he didn't really appreciate being reminded of it. Especially since he couldn't help noticing that Sirius had gotten significantly closer over the last hour and was now leaning up against Harry's leg. Harry had definitely felt more comfortable with their current situation when Sirius had been over the other side of the cupboard, in his box of feathers.

Another hour passed and Harry was resigned to the fact that they would be spending the night there. Sirius had already fallen asleep with his head in Harry's lap. Harry ran his fingers through his friend's hair, carefully so he wouldn't wake him up. He leant against the back of his chair and fell asleep, his hand still on Sirius head.

He woke up soon afterwards, when he felt Sirius move. He opened his eyes to see Sirius looking up at him. His hair was messed up and his eyes were still unfocused from being asleep but he was still gorgeous. Harry realised his hand was still in his hair and withdrew it rapidly. Sirius smirked and grabbed the hand, dragging Harry onto the floor beside him, which was easy to do considering Harry's dazed, half-asleep state. When Harry was sitting beside him, leaning against the chair leg, Sirius faced him and leant in so their faces were about an inch apart. Harry gulped and tried to pull back a bit but the chair was in the way.

"I've been thinking, while you were asleep…"

Harry nodded, finding he had lost the ability to do anything else.

"And if were to do anything, like the other day in the shack, that wouldn't mean we were gay or anything. I mean we're mates right? We'd just be messing around."

Harry nodded again.

"Good, I thought you'd agree."

Sirius closed the space between their faces, pressing his lips against Harry's again. By the time Harry had woken up fully and got over the shock Sirius was pulling away only this time, when he pulled back, there was no panic in his eyes and he showed no sign of wanting to leave.

"This doesn't mean we're gay."

Harry couldn't help disagreeing slightly but he found his voice and gave the answer he knew Sirius wanted to hear.

"No, just messing around."

* * *

A/N: review? Go on, just for me. For Christmas?


	11. Chapter 11

A/N: Well here's the next chapter. Thanks to everyone who reviewed- I've was away this week so I couldn't really reply properly but I really do appreciate it.

Chapter 11

They ended up sleeping the whole night in the potions cupboard. Neither boy woke up until they heard the sound of crowds of pupils heading off to their first lesson. When they heard people enter the potions room they hammered on the door of their cupboard until someone let them out. That someone happened to be a very startled looking first year who just nodded wordlessly when they muttered their thanks and stumbled out of the room. They headed of to their first lesson, which was transfiguration, feeling tired, hungry and stiff and both of them looked a mess. Sleeping all night in a supply cupboard can do that to a person.

They staggered into Transfiguration 5 minutes late and tried to slip in the back unnoticed. It was an empty hope; McGonagall never missed anything.

"So nice of you to join us Mr. Black. And you Mr. James. Care to tell us your reasons for your lateness?"

"Not really Professor."

"Indeed. Well that's ten points from Griffindor. Take a seat."

The lesson wasn't fun. They were learning theory, which was always boring, and McGonagall insisted on asking Sirius and Harry questions about it every few minutes; Harry had a feeling it was a extra form of punishment. Because they had to pay attention to answer the questions the lesson seemed pretty never-ending and by the time it finished Harry was ready to go to bed and it was only lunch time.

The minute the class was finished James and Remus jumped out of their seats and ran over to them.

"Where the hell did you get to last night?"

"Detention Prongs. It's ok, you're getting old; memory loss is normal."

"Shut it wiseass. That was meant to finish after an hour or so; you were out all night. Anyway, you're older than me."

"Only just."

"Still older."

"Ok I'm older. But I'm more beautiful."

As Sirius and James bickered James seemed to forget what it was that he wanted to know. Remus however was looking at Harry questioningly.

"Where _were _you last night?"

James snapped out of his argument.

"Yeah, don't distract me."

Sirius glanced sideways at Harry.

"We were erm… well, we were in the potions supply cupboard."

"O…k… why?"

"We were having a party."

"Without us?!?"

Sirius rolled his eyes. James could be a bit slow when it came to sarcasm.

"Not really numbskull. We were stuck. We got locked in by accident."

This time it was Remus who spoke.

"What the hell did you find to do in a cupboard all night?"

"Not much. Hammered on the door some, slept a bit. It's quite comfy in there."

Remus looked at Harry who pretended to be very interested in the air above James' head. He wasn't such a good liar as Sirius.

By the time they reached the Great Hall for lunch the conversation had changed but Harry couldn't shake the feeling that Remus was watching him; that he could see right through him.

Harry was soon distracted from his worries about Remus as Peter chose that moment to stumble into the room with tape over his mouth and his hands tied together, some curse causing his legs to flail out in every available direction as he struggled to remain upright.

Sirius and James were stuck somewhere between laughing and glaring at the Slytherins who were in hysterics as Remus half-lifted, half-dragged Peter to the table, un-taping his mouth and hands on the way. They somehow managed to stop his crazy legs and waited for him to regain his breath.

"Go on then Wormy. Which ones was it? We'll get them back."

"Snape, Avery and Nott. I should have been more careful, didn't see them coming."

"Doesn't matter; we'll think of something way better."

Harry smiled at the joy in Sirius' voice as he thought of ways to punish the three Slytherins.

* * *

James and Sirius were still plotting by the time they got back to the common room that evening. Their plans ranged from the achievable to the plain ridiculous and at times impossible.

One particularly complicated one involved a tribe of pygmies, a bungee rope, a bag of feathers and the Daily Prophet. They decided against that one as the pygmies would have been hard to get at short notice or, in fact, at all.

The five boys stayed up until the early hours of the morning plotting and drinking firewhiskey which James had gotten from the kitchens.

"Ok, ok, how about this: we knock them out, shave off their eyebrows and dye "Griffindor owns my soul" in the back of their hair. Then we wake them up and tie them to the ceiling in the Great Hall with the bungee rope."

"No no no Pads. S'not what we do. We tie them to one of the staircases with the bungee rope so that when it moves no one can reach them."

"Prongs, Pads. You do realise we don't have a bungee rope right?"

"Oh… well I still think we should shave off their eyebrows."

By about 4 a.m they were still awake and very drunk and still didn't have a plan other than Sirius being determined to shave off their eyebrows.

James wanted to fill the Slytherin common room with laughing gas and Remus wanted to make them all fall in love with Professor McGonagall. Peter was already passed out on the floor and so didn't have an opinion.

"So let's do all of them. Fill their common room with laughing gas mixed with knockout gas. Then while they're asleep give them the love potion and shave off their eyebrows and drop them off at McGonagall's office."

In their drunken state this sounded like the best plan they had heard in their lives. James slapped Harry on the back, almost knocking him over, Remus laughed and raised his drink in Harry's general direction and Sirius giggled gleefully and hugged him so hard Harry felt like all of the air had been squeezed out of his lungs. Harry laughed and spluttered a bit but he didn't try to free himself from Sirius' chokehold; Sirius was warm and cuddly so he squeezed him back. They all had another firewhiskey to celebrate the plan and less than two minutes after they swallowed the liquid they were all out cold.

* * *

Harry woke up the next morning to the sound of James groaning.

He was on the floor, leaning on something big and warm. He tried to open his eyes but the light sent shooting pains to the back of his head.

"Shit."

He heard a laugh from the other side of the room. He opened his eyes again, this time slowly, to see Remus sitting on his bed grinning at him. James was lying on the floor about a metre away from where he was with his face to the ground moaning about his head. He looked at the thing he was leaning on and realised he was still cuddled up to Sirius with his friend's arms wrapped around his waist.

He looked back up at Remus who was still smirking in an irritatingly knowing way, one eyebrow raised. Harry rolled his eyes at him and he laughed again before flashing a flashlight at James and making him yell. Harry separated himself from Sirius and went to get a glass of water.

By the time he got back everyone was awake, just, and complaining. Except for Remus who still seemed oddly cheerful.

"Come on guys, up you get!!"

Sirius threw a pillow at him which Remus caught deftly and chucked back.

"Why is he so happy?"

"Moony doesn't get hangovers. He's a freak."

Harry wondered if that was anything to do with his being a werewolf or if he was just lucky like that. He decided to think again when his head hurt less.

"Come on guys. Stop moping. If you get up we can go to Hogsmeade and get hangover cures."

"Or we can stay here and go back to sleep."

"It's 12:15. You have to get up sometime."

"And why do we have to do that?"

"Well, partly because you've already missed all your morning lessons and if you want the cure we have to hurry or we won't make it back before the end of lunch but mostly just cos I say so."

Sirius just glared and closed his eyes again so Remus jumped out of bed and grabbed Harry's glass or water, tipping it over Sirius' head. Sirius gasped and spluttered, threatening to curse Remus into oblivion. It did the job though; there was no way Sirius was getting back to sleep after that.

An hour later they were in Hogsmeade, rummaging around the shelves in the pharmacy for a hangover cure. Harry had never had to go into the pharmacy before and was disappointed by how much it looked like a muggle pharmacy just with different medicines and weirder looking people in it. He supposed sick people didn't really appreciate the brightly coloured things which whizzed and spun and made funny noises that tended to fill the rest of the wizarding world. He was pretty grateful himself that nothing had jumped out at him or started speaking to him.

"Ah ha! Voila, eureka and all that jazz! I have found it!"

Remus brandished a small green bottle and jumped up and down in what looked vaguely like a victory dance but Harry suspected was merely a way of making them feel dizzier than they already were. He couldn't help feeling that Remus was being overly loud and annoying on purpose.

Sirius seemed to agree. He grabbed the bottle off Remus with a funny snarling noise that sounded a lot more like Sirius the dog than Sirius the human and made his way over to the checkout counter where he paid a very bored looking witch.

"Thank you for shopping at Dr. Feelgood's, last minute medication for a wizard in a hurry. Have a nice day."

She sounded like she cared about them having a nice day about as much as she cared what colour socks they were wearing.

They leant against the wall outside and drank the green liquid. The results were immediate.

"So, drinks anyone?"

Everyone groaned and lunged at Sirius but they all missed; minus the hangover he was way too quick for them. They ended up in the three broomsticks anyway but only drinking butterbeer and talking about the upcoming Christmas holidays.

"So Harry, you going home, staying here or what?"

"Staying here. Going home would be hard with it being so far away and all."

Remus looked like he was about to say something, probably along the lines of "but couldn't you just floo/apparate?" but he didn't get the chance as James jumped in first.

"You could come stay at mine if you want."

"Really?"

James shrugged.

"Yeah sure. Sirius is staying anyway and we have loads of space. You'll be bored rigid here on your own."

Harry nodded his thanks while trying no to look too excited. He would get to meet the rest of his dad's family and spending the holiday with James and Sirius was definitely preferable to staying at Hogwarts on his own. He decided to ask Dumbledore if it was ok as soon as he could.

* * *

A/N: Next chapter should be up pretty soon- hopefully next week won't be as hellish as this one has been. Prizes for anyone who enjoyed the name of the pharmacy. Please review!


	12. Chapter 12

A/N: When writing author's notes, does anyone else find themselves tempted to pour out all of their random thoughts and tell those people (who don't know you and therefore don't actually care) all the troubles etc in your life?

Or is that just me?

However tempting it may be, I won't do it because it would be irritating and a touch pathetic because I do realise this isn't a blog and no one wants to read miles of me moaning.

How's 2009 going for everyone so far?

Good I hope.

Does anyone else think it's really weird that next year is 2010? I think it sounds crazy futuristic.

Sorry, I'll shut up now.

Chapter 12 

The next week or so went pretty quickly. Dumbledore agreed to let Harry stay with the Potters over the holidays which prompted James to start planning a million different things for them to do and Sirius to waggle his eyebrows at him when no one was looking.

Since Sirius had decided that it was ok for them to make out he had been dragging his friend into corners, cupboards, empty classrooms or any other imaginable empty space any time he got the chance. It was like a game. The only rule was that no one else could know. It was difficult as James, Remus and Peter were almost always with them but it was amazing how many places there were in the school which no one but Sirius seemed to know about. Well, he was a Marauder after all.

Harry took Sirius' suggestive eyebrow waggling to mean that the game would be continuing over the holidays and he definitely wasn't complaining.

The last day came and, once again, Harry found himself rooting around under his bed for his belongings at the last minute. Packing with the Marauders was like trying to swim with a ten tonne weight attached to each of you feet- impossible and futile.

He had thought it would be quick since he didn't need everything; just his holiday work and some clothes. Unfortunately for him, James was a fast packer. This meant he was sitting on his bed with nothing to do while the others finished packing which, in turn, meant that he had to make his own entertainment. He did this by waiting until one of them was nearly finished packing and then tipping all of their stuff out of their trunk magically. They eventually gave up in favour of tackling James, tickling him mercilessly and beating him with pillows. After that they weren't in the mood to pack and decided to do it the next morning after breakfast.

That would have been a good plan if Sirius hadn't decided to drag Harry out of breakfast early because he felt like making out in the empty muggle studies classroom. Harry hadn't thought this was so awful at the time but it did mean that by the time everyone was supposed to be leaving, Harry and Sirius were still rushing around trying to find things. Harry was beginning to think that the Gods of packing really didn't like him.

"Hurry up guys we're gonna be late."

"We are hurrying Prongs."

"Well hurry faster then! You'd be done already if you hadn't taken so long getting back from breakfast. You left before us!"

"I told you Prongs, we got lost. The stairs moved again."

"God Pads, how long have you been here? You're a shame to the Marauding name."

Sirius ignored this and threw one last thing into his trunk.

"Done. Harry?"

"Yup. Let's go."

They ran down the stairs in record time and as they passed Professor McGonagall in the doorway Harry decided that nothing ever really changed at Hogwarts.

There were no empty carriages on the train but that didn't matter. Sirius stuck his head into a carriage of first years and glared, sending them scurrying out. Remus smiled sympathetically at the poor kids as they stumbled over each other.

"Merlin Sirius, you scared them half to death."

Sirius grinned and closed the sliding doors with his wand.

"Yeah well, respect for their elders and all that."

Remus smacked the back of his head.

"Ow! Sorry mum I'll be nicer to the kiddies in future."

"Git."

"I got us somewhere to sit didn't I?"

"That's not the…"

"Stop arguing kids. We have company."

Harry turned to see what James meant and saw Snape, Avery, Nott and Rookwood standing in the doorway.

"What do you want Snivellus?"

"That's not a very polite way to welcome guests now is it Black?"

"If you're just here to show us what it looks like when you put off having a shower for five years- congratulations, you've done it. Now could you please leave? You're stinking up the carriage."

"As pleasant as it is to talk to you Black; we actually came to see Potter."

"You're here for lil ol' me? Well shucks. Give us a minute."

James fished a spray bottle from his bag and sprayed something at the Slytherins.

"Disinfectant. Continue."

"Oh very funny Potter, clearly your girlfriend found you about as amusing as we do. We noticed her sitting at the other end of the train and thought we'd come and offer our… condolences. She finally get sick of you?"

James glared and pointed his wand at Snape, Avery sniggered.

"Touchy subject Potter?"

Sirius stood up next to James.

"Shut it Avery. He's just bitter James, cos no girl in the school would touch him with a ten-foot broomstick. Can't blame them really; face like a ferret."

"Shut up Black. No one's talking to you."

"Oh? Touchy subject?"

Avery shot a curse at Sirius but Sirius was too fast and blocked it, throwing another one back at Avery which sent him flying backwards into the door. Rookwood dragged him to his feet while Snape and Nott pointed their wands at Sirius. It would probably have turned into a full on war if the refreshments cart hadn't rolled by at that moment.

"Do any of you want… what happened to him?"

She pointed at Avery who was now foaming at the mouth and twitching, his eyes rolling around in his head. Sirius waved his hand dismissively.

"Don't worry he'll be fine in about 5 minutes."

"Everyone back to your own carriages or I will call your teachers down here."

The Slytherins shot them one last filthy look before sloping off back to their own carriage, dragging Avery behind them. Remus and Harry got some stuff from the cart. When they brought it back, James was sitting at the end of one of the seats staring blankly out of the window.

"Come on Prongs, don't be like that. They're gits, don't listen to them."

But there was nothing they could say could. They tried _everything _but James had been reminded of the Lilyless state of his life and was clearly determined to be miserable about it for the remainder of the journey. By the time they reached Charing Cross they had given up any attempt at cheering him up.

Peter disappeared pretty much straight away after some quick goodbyes. Remus spotted his parents and waved to them before turning back to his friends.

"Bye guys."

He hugged James who just grunted.

"Dear God, cheer up man."

He turned to Sirius and hugged him too.

"Good luck with old grumpy over there."

James had already gone over to a couple who Harry assumed were his parents.

"Gonna need it if he stays like this."

Remus laughed and hugged Harry.

"Good luck with this nutter."

"Hey! He doesn't need luck. I'm lovely."

"Sure you are."

Remus waved and headed over to his parents, Sirius slung his arm around Harry's shoulder and led him over to where James' family was standing.

"Sirius dear, there you are!"

James' mum wrapped Sirius in a huge hug and kissed him on the cheek. It reminded Harry a bit of how Mrs Weasley was with him.

"And you must be Harry! Lovely to meet you dear."

They all went back through the barrier to the muggle station and found a safe spot to apparate.

"Someone needs to go with Harry since he doesn't know where it is."

Sirius volunteered to take him. Mrs Potter didn't look like she though this was a great idea but she agreed anyway. The others went first and Harry was left with Sirius.

"Ok, I've thought of a game."

"I knew there was a reason you wanted to take me."

"So suspicious, I couldn't just want to help out?"

Harry shot him a look which clearly said 'how stupid do you think I am?'

"Ok, so what's this game then?"

"It's called the groping game."

"Charming."

"Well I didn't have much time to think of a name."

"But still…"

"Ok the name's not important."

"What are the rules?"

"Basically: see who can grope the other person the most with other people in the room but without them noticing."

"Perv."

"1 point for James in the room, 2 for his dad or his sister and 3 for his mum. Most points by the end of the holidays wins."

"Perv."

"You're just scared you'll lose."

"Am not. I could beat you at anything."

"Prove it. Come on, it's fun!"

Harry pretended to roll his eyes and sigh dramatically.

"Fine then."

Sirius smiled and kissed Harry's lips lightly.

"I knew you'd like it. Come on, we've got to go."

Harry held onto Sirius' arm but Sirius shook his head.

"Nope, you have to hold on like this."

Sirius wound Harry's arms around his waist. Harry laughed and hugged him tight, making the most of the opportunity. The station spun out of focus and when it resettled they were behind a bush by a big, old house. Sirius squeezed Harry before letting him go and leading him to the front door.

"There you are! We thought you'd gotten lost."

Mrs Potter bustled out of the kitchen followed by a younger girl who looked about 9. She took one look at Sirius and blushed and giggled.

"Heya Jessie."

Jessie blushed even more and waved shyly before retreating back into the kitchen. Sirius winked at Harry and Harry groaned internally; he would be hearing about Sirius' billions of admirers for the rest of the day.

"Sirius dear, could you show Harry his room? I would ask James but he's off sulking about something."

"Will do."

He grinned at Mrs Potter while pinching Harry's arse, hard. Harry jumped and looked up at Sirius who was looking completely innocent. Mrs Potter smiled at them both and went back to the kitchen.

"That's three to me. Gonna have to make an effort if you want to win."

He grabbed Harry's hand and dragged him up the stairs.

* * *

A/N: review!!!!!


	13. Chapter 13

A/N: For those of you who wanted more Harry/Sirius stuff, this might make you happy. Then again you may hate it, who knows really?

I just finished an essay I had to write which took me ages and have just realised that this chapter on its own is longer than that yet strangely this hardly took any time to write at all. Useful huh?

Chapter 13

Harry's room was big and airy. It had a huge window along one wall. The house hadn't looked very tall from the outside but from the window it looked like he was about six floors up and he could see everything. There were tiny houses with gardens and flowers and people milling around stretched out for miles. He knew they weren't far from London but it was hard to imagine that the city could exist anywhere nearby.

Someone knocked on his door jerking him out of his daze and he jumped.

"Come in."

It was Jessie. She was twisting a strand of dark hair nervously around her finger.

"Um… my mum. She told me to tell you that dinner's ready. If you want any."

"Oh yeah, thanks. I'll be down in a second."

She nodded and disappeared out of the door.

As he went out after her he could hear her talking to Sirius in his room.

"Hey Sirius, mum says dinner's ready."

"Aw thanks babe. I'll be down in a minute."

He heard her giggle and she came out, pink to the tips of her ears.

Sirius came out a bit after and walked straight into Harry who was looking amused.

"You are so mean."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Teasing her like that. She can't help having awful taste in guys."

"Hey! I'm not that bad."

"Sure you aren't."

"Yeah, whatever. You know I'm hot."

Harry patted Sirius on the back and walked away shaking his head.

"What's that supposed to mean? Harry, get your arse back here!"

He followed Harry down the stairs.

"Harry! Stop being a bitch and give me a proper answer!"

Harry grinned to himself but didn't stop walking. He couldn't help noticing that Sirius cared quite a lot what he thought for someone who claimed to be 100% straight.

Sirius looked like he was going to yell again but they had arrived in the kitchen and he was interrupted by Mrs Potter.

"Do either of you know what James is being so moody about? He's hardly said a word to anyone since he got back."

It was true. Sirius had had one last attempt at cheering him up and had given up when he got a History of Magic textbook thrown at his head.

"He'll get over it. You know he never sulks for very long."

Mrs Potter sighed.

"Yes, that's true I suppose."

She smiled and handed them each a plate of spaghetti. As they went over to the table Harry saw an evil glint in Sirius eyes and it wasn't long before he worked out what had caused it.

A couple of minutes after they had sat down Harry felt Sirius' hand on his thigh. At first he wasn't moving it but after a while he started rubbing up and down. He was just sitting, talking to Jessie and Mr and Mrs Potter and he looked so innocent Harry would almost believe he wasn't doing anything if he couldn't feel it.

A slight smirk played around the edges of Sirius' lips as he moved his hand to the inside of Harry's thigh and moved closer and closer to his crotch. Harry tried to shift away to make it more difficult for him but Sirius hooked his feet around Harry's ankles, holding him in place. Harry tried to ignore it, thinking about Uncle Vernon in swimming trunks and Snape in a tutu; he was _not_ giving Sirius the satisfaction of knowing he was turning him on.

Unfortunately, no visions of Uncle Vernon or Snape were strong enough to keep his mind off Sirius when he moved his hand onto Harry's crotch, rubbing him through his jeans. Harry could feel himself getting hard as Sirius rubbed him but he managed to sit still for another minute or so. It wasn't until he felt Sirius hand go to unzip his jeans that he stood up.

"I erm… I need the loo. I'll be right back."

"Do you know where it is?"

"No but I'll find it."

Harry's stomach sunk as he anticipated the next words to come out of Sirius' mouth.

"I'll show you."

There had been a few times when Harry would have gladly murdered Sirius. This was one of them.

"Thanks Sirius but I'll be fine."

"Nah, I'll come with. It's difficult to find."

Sirius smiled at the Potters and pushed Harry out of the room and into a coat cupboard just to the right of the kitchen door. Sirius locked the door and leant against the wall.

"Told you I'm hot."

"Sirius, shut up and let me go to the bathroom."

"Not until you admit it."

"Admit what?"

"That I'm hot."

"No way, it's just a natural reaction to some horny git feeling you up under a table."

"Yeah, sure. I'm hot; admit it and I'll let you go."

"I'll say it but I won't mean it."

"Not good enough."

"Then we can stay here."

Sirius' grin widened.

"Fine."

Sirius moved to where Harry was standing and pushed him against the wall, pinning his arms against the wall above his head in one swift movement and kissing him hard. Harry moaned and Sirius took the opportunity to slip his tongue past Harry's lips, brushing over Harry's own tongue, exploring his mouth and making his friend shiver. Harry tried to hold back a whimper as Sirius ground his hips roughly against his, rubbing against his erection. He tried to move his arms but Sirius' grip was too tight. It was unbearable not to be able to touch him. All too soon Sirius pulled away so his mouth was a few millimetres away from Harry's.

"Admit it or I'll make you so hard it hurts. Then I'll lock you in."

He leant in to kiss down Harry's neck. Harry could feel his eyes roll back in his head as Sirius sucked at a sensitive spot on his collarbone. He groaned and struggled but Sirius was too strong for him.

"Ok, ok!"

"Say it."

"You're hot."

"How hot?"

"So fucking hot."

Sirius smiled and let go of his hands and put his hands on Harry's hips.

"Much better."

He turned around and unlocked the door.

"Loo's up the stairs, second on the right."

Harry watched him go back into the kitchen before heading up the stairs. He closed the bathroom door and leant against it panting. He caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror above the sink, his face was flushed and his hair was an unruly mess but he didn't attempt to straighten it out.

He stayed motionless against the door for a few seconds before unzipping his jeans and pulling out his throbbing erection. He closed his eyes and ran his hands up and down his cock, sighing at the relief. He found himself imagining Sirius' hands on him as he stroked himself and it was only took a moment before he came. As he cleaned up he saw Sirius face in his mind, winking at him. Harry had come to the conclusion that he was definitely gay.

As if his life needed more complications.

* * *

A/N: Like it? No? review please!


	14. Chapter 14

A/N: Oh yeah, check out my super quick updates. Well… almost super quick.

To be honest this is a bit of a cheat chapter but hey, you might like to read it anyway.

Chapter 14

The groping game was a dead loss right from the beginning.

Harry just didn't have Sirius' gift of keeping a straight face through anything and everything and he just had too much conscience to feel up the Potters' second son while they were right in front off him. He had a feeling Sirius had known he wouldn't be able to do it. After the first week the score stood 32-0.

James had eventually stopped sulking. It had taken three days but then he got caught up in the excitement of Christmas with everyone else.

Christmas at the Potters' was pretty much like Christmas everywhere else except everything looked like it had been super-sized.

There was a 30-foot Christmas tree and more lights than NYC at night. Mrs Potter had hung up nets in the garden full of blue pixies and somehow it always seemed to snow in their garden, even though everywhere else was just getting grey drizzle. Mrs Potter put up new decorations everyday and by the time Christmas day arrived it looked like there had been an explosion at the tinsel factory.

"Harry! Get up!!"

"It's Christmas!"

"Christmas, Christmas, Christmas!!"

"Happy, shiny Christmas!"

Christmas was the only day in the whole year when Sirius and James both voluntarily got up early. This meant Harry was jumped on and prodded at 7:30.

"Ok, I'm up. I'm up!"

He was dragged downstairs before his eyes had even opened properly.

Jessie was already downstairs so the four of them sat by the massive Christmas tree and had a tinsel fight until James' parents came down. It turned into more of a tinsel war and by the time Mr and Mrs Potter turned up James' glasses were broken in three places, Harry had had his hands and feet tied up with the tinsel and Sirius was stuck in the tree, complaining about the bits of shiny foil in his mouth. Jessie was surprisingly clean and unharmed; turned out she was pretty good at tinsel fights.

Mrs Potter tutted as she untied Harry and they both fished Sirius out of the tree. James managed to fix his glasses but then they were knocked off again by an owl which flew in through the window.

"It's from Moony."

"Right, well you read it because I'm having difficulties at the moment. You can read right?"

Harry picked up James' glasses and handed them to him while Sirius started to read.

"He says 'Dear James, Sirius and Harry'- that's us- 'Merry Christmas'- that's what today is…"

"Oh give it here you prat."

James grabbed it off Sirius.

"Right, 'Dear James, Sirius and Harry. Merry Christmas…'"

"I just read that part."

James gave Sirius a withering glare before continuing.

"'Merry Christmas. Your presents are attached. I put something in there which is for all of you. You'll like it but don't open it until later. Hope James is feeling better and Harry hasn't gone mad yet. Say Merry Christmas to Jessie and James' parents from me. Love Moony'"

James lowered his voice so his parents couldn't hear.

"We'll open it when my mum and dad are gone."

He put the package by the door and turned to his parents.

"Remus says 'Merry Christmas'."

"Oh that was sweet of him. He's such a nice boy, don't you agree dear?"

She nudged Mr Potter in the ribs. He agreed hurriedly and she spent the next 20 minutes gushing about what a lovely boy Remus was.

* * *

Since Harry had never had a proper family, family Christmases were a new experience for him. He decided it was an experience he liked.

They spent most of the morning just mucking around while Mrs Potter finished cooking; Christmas has a way of making everyone act like they're five again. James told Jessie about Hogwarts in a hugely exaggerated manner which involved the lake having flying hippos in it and the stairs turning into liquid so you could just fall straight through, while Sirius hung baubles all over Harry- on his ears, in his hair and from his lip ring- until he was almost as decorated as the tree.

When lunch was ready, they pulled magic crackers and ate until they thought they would explode. It was the first mealtime in days that Sirius hadn't felt Harry up which Harry was grateful for as it was more than a little bit embarrassing. Instead he just held his hand under the table which was difficult because it meant they had to do everything one handed but Harry liked it.

After lunch, Sirius, James and Harry took the opportunity to escape upstairs to find out what Remus had sent them. They all sat on James' bed. Sirius took off the first layer of wrapping paper to reveal several hundred packets of sweets surrounding another, smaller package. It had a strange radioactive glow to it. They looked at each other nervously. Sirius poked it.

"Ok, it's from Moony so I'm pretty sure it's safe. But just in case, I think James should open it."

"Me?! Why me?"

"Cos me and Harry are prettier than you; a few radioactivity burns on your face wouldn't be quite so much of a disaster."

They argued about it for a while before Harry decided it was best if he just did it himself. He opened it and pulled out a small box and read the label.

"Extreme swelling solution."

James and Sirius stopped arguing and looked at Harry. They hadn't even seen him open it.

He pulled a bottle out of the box. The bottle was filled with a glowing, fluorescent yellow liquid.

"What is it?"

"Extreme swelling solution. According to the box it makes anyone who drinks it swell to three times their normal size and float around. Oh and they get covered in pink spots for a week. There's another note from Moony- 'Thought this might be useful for our Slytherin friends.'."

James laughed.

"Where does he find these things?"

Sirius took the bottle from Harry and turned it over in his hands.

"It's probably not completely legal. It says side-effects can include coughing, itching, severe vomiting and collapsing kidneys."

"Ah, that's why he didn't want my parents to see it."

There was a knock on the door and Sirius stuffed the bottle under the pillow just before Mrs Potter's head appeared.

"Are you lot going to sit up here all day or do you want to come downstairs and open presents?"

"We'll be down in half a second mum."

When she had gone Sirius retrieved the potion from under James' pillow.

"Where can we put it where she won't find it?"

James took the bottle and hid it in one of his socks and they went downstairs after Mrs Potter.

It had been a while since Harry had got no presents on Christmas day; he hadn't spent Christmas with the Dursley's since before he started at Hogwarts, but it still surprised him every year that he got anything. It was even more surprising that he still got presents 20 years back in time.

Mrs Potter, who was reminding him more and more of Mrs Weasley everyday, got him a huge box of chocolate frogs which he added to the pile he already had from Remus and hugged him until his face was red, repeating over and over how lovely it was to have him staying with them.

He was eventually saved from Mrs Potter's death grip by James' who insisted that she had to let go so that he could give Harry his gift which turned out to be a tiny broomstick which whizzed around people's heads and squirted water in their faces. As he thanked James he felt Sirius press something into his hands. He prodded it to try and work out the shape but he couldn't feel it. He was very wary of opening anything that Sirius gave him as James had already opened his present from him and got his face covered in some kind of smelly green gunge.

Eventually he decided there was no immediate danger in opening the package and tore off the wrapping paper. He saw Sirius smirk out of the corner of his eye. Inside the paper was a set of handcuffs and a long piece of black material which turned out to be a gag.

Mrs Potter looked confused as she peered inside the package and Harry could've sworn that even his scalp was red.

"It's an inside joke. It would take a long time to explain, you kind of had to be there."

James had hardly even batted an eyelash. He was used to Sirius doing strange things and if he said it was some kind of inside joke then that was all he needed to know. Mrs Potter seemed to accept the story which amazed Harry as he was pretty sure it couldn't be more obvious that he was embarrassed about something unless he stamped it on his forehead.

He quickly changed the subject by saying something extremely random about wrapping paper. Fortunately this worked and soon everyone had forgotten about the strange contents of Harry's present.

The sun went down and slowly everyone in the house sloped off too their own individual rooms to sleep.

James' parents and Jessie disappeared first, yawning and bidding the three boys merry Christmas for the last time, leaving Harry, Sirius and James sitting in the living room by the tree in companionable silence. They lay on the floor pushing fallen baubles around, every now and then one of them saying something or chucking a ball at one of others, until Sirius yawned and told the other two he was going to bed.

Harry and James lay there for a bit longer before surrendering and heading up to their own rooms, bidding each other goodnight at the top of the stairs.

Harry swung his door open and pulled off his shirt and dumped it on the floor by his bed, deciding that he could pick it up the next day when he could be bothered. He reached out to grab his pyjamas from under his pillow but stopped when he felt cold hands on his waist.

He tried to spin round but he was held in place and as he tried to speak a hand was clamped over his mouth. He heard Sirius laugh as he struggled to turn round, to see him. It was a hopeless battle; Sirius was stronger and taller and Harry wasn't trying desperately hard anyway.

Harry felt Sirius' breath tickle his ear as the other boy leant his head closer.

"I haven't given you all of your present yet."

* * *

A/N: tehe. Review!


	15. Chapter 15

A/N: Hiya. Thanks tons to everyone who reviewed the last chapter- even though you were all mostly complaining about the cliffie. The italics are the end of the last chapter so that it runs together properly.

This fic is M so that should really be enough warning but just in case- this chapter is slightly more slashy than previous ones.

Just in case.

Chapter 15

_Harry swung his door open and pulled off his shirt and dumped it on the floor by his bed, deciding that he could pick it up the next day when he could be bothered. He reached out to grab his pyjamas from under his pillow but stopped when he felt cold hands on his waist._

_He tried to spin round but he was held in place and as he tried to speak a hand was clamped over his mouth. He heard Sirius laugh as he struggled to turn round, to see him. It was a hopeless battle; Sirius was stronger and taller and Harry wasn't trying desperately hard anyway._

_Harry felt Sirius' breath tickle his ear as the other boy leant his head closer._

"_I haven't given you all of your present yet."_

Sirius' hands slipped further around Harry's waist to hold him even more firmly in position. Harry still wasn't wearing a shirt and Sirius' fingers felt rough and gentle at the same time against his skin. He felt his lips brush over his neck and gasped when Sirius unexpectedly bit him and sucked the skin just below his ear. Harry was certain he was going to have a mark there but he couldn't bring himself to care; it was winter after all, he could wear a scarf.

The rain of light kisses made him feel relaxed and sleepy. He closed his eyes and leant back on Sirius, enjoying the sensation of the other's lips on his skin.

Sirius felt him relax and chose that moment to spin him round, snapping him out of his calm state. Harry opened his eyes to see Sirius grin widely as he backed up him against the wall by his bed. He ran his hands over Harry's back as he kissed him, exploring his skin with his fingers. It felt as if his hands left a searing hot trail behind them. Harry pushed against him and kissed back, his hands tangled in Sirius' long hair, no longer feeling at all sleepy. He moaned as Sirius' tongue tangled with his and gripped Sirius' hair so tightly he was sure he must have hurt him but Sirius' only reaction was to dig his nails slightly into Harry's back and kiss him harder. He pushed Harry further against the wall and ground their hips together, his lips leaving his friend's mouth for a moment to go back to sucking on that spot below his ear.

Harry closed his eyes and moaned, he felt Sirius' hands leave his back and close around his own, twining their fingers together as he kissed his neck.

Then he heard a clicking sound.

He opened his eyes just as Sirius pulled back, smirking all over his face. He looked down to see that one of his hands had been handcuffed to the bedpost.

Sirius watched as Harry pulled at the metal and shook his hand in the vain hope that it might just drop off. He gave up pretty quickly; he knew when he was fighting a losing battle.

"Very funny Sirius."

Sirius shrugged.

"I try."

He reached towards the hand which was attached to the bed and for a split second Harry thought he was going to undo it. He just touched it absentmindedly for a second before grinning and pushing Harry backwards, onto the bed.

"Ow!"

It didn't really hurt; the metal was a bit uncomfortable around his wrist when he fell but he adjusted the position of his hand and it was fine. It was more a matter of principle; he wasn't going to let Sirius handcuff him to a bed and push him over without making a little bit of a fuss.

"Drama queen."

Harry scowled and stuck his tongue out at Sirius.

"Oh real mature."

"This from the man who handcuffed me to my own bed."

Sirius looked like he was about to reply but then an evil look crossed his face; he had had a better idea. He straddled Harry's waist and tickled him until tears poured down his face. Harry wriggled but he was pretty much defenceless without the use of one of his hands; Sirius was too heavy to shake off and after a while he was too weak from the laughing to do anything but swat at Sirius with his one free hand.

When Sirius had decided he had tortured Harry enough he bent down and kissed him again. Harry wound one arm around his waist, slipping his fingers under Sirius' shirt. He felt Sirius smile against his lips before moving to kiss down his neck. Harry gasped as he felt Sirius' mouth on his chest and his tongue playing with one of his nipples and then the other.

He carried on kissing, licking, biting and sucking on Harry's skin down his stomach, taking his time, every now and then hitting a sensitive spot which would make Harry groan and writhe in pleasure. One particular spot just above the top of his jeans caught Harry by surprise and Sirius grinned smugly at the moans he received. He teased him for a few moments longer before reaching to undo his jeans.

Harry watched him silently, trying to fight down the nervous feeling in the pit of his stomach. He felt stupid for being worried but he had never done this with anyone before and suddenly it seemed like kind of a big deal. Sirius pushed down his jeans and rubbed the bulge in his boxers. He looked up at Harry who, although still not completely sure, nodded. This was all the permission Sirius needed and soon Harry found he had lost his last remaining item of clothing.

Sirius only hesitated briefly before flicking out his tongue and rolling it around the tip of Harry's cock. Then, before Harry had time to register that it was happening, he had taken his whole length into his mouth and was sucking, bobbing his head up an down. All of Harry's nervousness disappeared into nothing the second he felt Sirius warm mouth around him. He moaned, thrusting up into Sirius' mouth and gripping his hair with his free hand.

It wasn't long before Harry was a moaning, shaking mess; he felt like he was going to explode. He briefly wondered if Sirius had done this before but decided, considering how adamant he was that he wasn't gay, that it was unlikely. Either he was naturally gifted or Harry was very easy to please.

Very soon Harry was coming in Sirius mouth. He collapsed, panting and feeling slightly dizzy. Sirius crawled back up so that their faces were level and kissed him slowly. His tongue had a metallic, salty taste on it.

When Harry began to feel slightly more conscious of his surroundings he felt Sirius' own erection against his leg. He didn't hesitate before reaching down and rubbing his palm against the crotch o Sirius trousers. Sirius groaned into their kiss and Harry grinned, slowly undoing the zip on his trousers.

He slipped his hand into Sirius' boxers and gripped his hard cock, sliding his hand up and down it slowly at first until Sirius breathing began to get heavier. It was an awkward angle as Harry's other hand was still stuck and he couldn't move, but he managed and soon Sirius was moaning and coming in his hand.

They lay still for a while, Sirius getting his breath back and Harry looking at him, trying not to think about how hot he looked with his hair all messed up. After a few minutes Sirius leant over and kissed Harry gently.

"Merry Christmas."

* * *

A/N: Review!


	16. Chapter 16

A/N: This one's kind of short so I decided to post 2 today- they kind of run together anyway. Thanks bucketloads to everyone who reviewed- I love you guys!

Chapter 16

When Harry woke up the next morning his arm was twisted in an uncomfortable position and there was somebody's hair really close to his face so that every time he took a breath it tickled.

It took him a few seconds to remember what had happened and when he did he wasn't sure whether to be embarrassed or happy. It was the first time they'd done anything other than just making out and a small part of him hoped that that meant that Sirius might finally be willing to drop his "just messing around" cover.

Sirius had his head resting on his chest, breathing in and out gently. Every now and then he would wriggle a bit and make a cute sniffling sound. Harry smiled and decided that happy was definitely the better option.

He would have gotten up but his hand was still stuck to the bed so watching Sirius sleep seemed like as good an option as any.

He picked up a piece of his hair and twisted it around his fingers. It glinted a dark blue when held it up to the light. Harry loved Sirius' hair; he could never make his look as perfect if he tried for years. Sirius' eyes flickered and gradually opened. He looked around blearily, trying to rub the sleepiness out of them with his hand.

He looked up at Harry and smiled.

"Hey… what time is it?"

Harry looked over at the clock by his bed.

"11:40"

Sirius sat up.

"We should probably get up before Prongs or one of his parents come up and find us. This wouldn't look so great."

Harry agreed. The idea of Mrs Potter or James coming in the find them in bed in their boxers with the rest of their clothes in a tangled heap on the floor didn't really appeal to him. Not to mention the fact he was still stuck to the bedpost.

"Yeah ok. Can you undo this?"

He shook his hand and the clinking sound reminded Sirius of the handcuffs. He laughed and nodded.

"I guess I should. Hang on…"

He rooted around in his jean pocket, then the other one, then the back pockets and then scanned the floor.

"Please tell me you haven't lost it. If you have lost the key I swear I will murder you."

Sirius laughed nervously and ran a hand through his hair.

"Yeah, see, funny thing that… I definitely had it so it has to be around here somewhere."

Harry would have got up and hit Sirius but he couldn't reach him so he settled for glaring.

"Find it."

Sirius looked under the pile of clothes and under the bed before shrugging and shaking his head.

"Sorry mate, it's a mystery."

Harry saw a glint in Sirius' eyes and threw a pillow at him with his free hand.

"Stop being a git and unlock this thing."

Sirius laughed and pulled the key out from behind his back.

"Ok, ok. You should have seen you're face."

Harry waited patiently while Sirius unlocked him before pushing him on the floor and swinging his legs over the side of the bed. Sirius made a grab for his feet but he jumped over him. He turned round and stuck his tongue out at Sirius, promptly tripping over a pair of jeans and landing on the ground.

"Oomf!"

* * *

By the time they had actually managed to get changed it was after 12. James caught them at the bottom of the stairs.

"There you are. God Pads I know you're lazy but still… and you've infected Harry with it too!"

Sirius laughed and pretended to hit him. Mrs Potter's reaction was pretty much the same.

Harry tried to act normal but he felt like every move he made made him look suspicious. Of course, Sirius didn't have that problem; he never did. He was acting as if nothing even vaguely unusual had happened, but then maybe for him nothing had. Maybe he was just being over reactive and making a bigger deal out of it than it really was.

Watching Sirius leaning against the kitchen counter, laughing along with everyone else about some joke or other, Harry began to get annoyed. He didn't understand Sirius at all.

It had been nearly two months since the first time they kissed. Since then they had been disappearing together several times a day and Harry was perfectly willing to admit that it wasn't just messing around for him anymore. Sometimes he was positive that Sirius thought the same; he certainly seemed just as into it as Harry did. The night before he had definitely been enjoying it just as much but then he would always act like it was nothing, like they were still just friends, and every time Harry felt a little more stupid.

Sirius looked over at Harry and grinned, laughing at something that someone had said that Harry had missed. He smiled back weakly before sliding out of the room, heading towards the bathroom. He closed the door and leant against the sink, looking distractedly at his reflection in the round mirror.

"Cheer up, it may never happen."

He almost jumped out of his skin; he had never quite gotten used to mirrors talking to him. He took a few deep breaths before leaving the bathroom; it wouldn't do him any good if he went back looking pissed off, that would just mean lots of questions.

He was only a few steps outside the door when he felt hands squeeze his waist from behind. He jumped and turned around.

"Boo."

"Don't do that."

Sirius laughed. Harry turned round to head back down the stairs.

"Hey, we don't have to go back down straight away, no one will miss us."

Harry shook his head and carried on walking. Sirius caught his wrist.

"You ok?"

"I'm fine."

"Then come on!"

"I want to go get a drink. Maybe later."

He turned away from Sirius, who was looking confused, and walked down the stairs, promising himself as he went that whatever this was that he was doing with Sirius would stop; it wasn't good for his mental health.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

It was a lot easier to avoid being alone with Sirius than Harry had anticipated. He suggested that they work on exactly what they were going to do to the Slytherins when they got back to school, which occupied a lot of time and meant that James was always with them. Once they had planned the prank he made sure that they were always playing some sort of stupid game, sometimes with Jessie as well, which involved them all being in the same room together. If James and Jessie were ever both gone at the same time, Harry would either start up a conversation with Mrs or Mr Potter or make up some excuse about being tired or having to write to someone from Durmstrang and disappear up to his room.

Sometimes he wanted to give up and just let Sirius do whatever he wanted, fuck whether it meant anything or not; sometimes he was perfectly fine with being used. But the rest of the time he knew that it was good for him, that he would get over whatever feelings he had for Sirius quicker if he wasn't making out with him 24/7 and it was important to get over it so he could move on with his life and stop being pathetic and desperate which was what he was beginning to think he was.

After a while he was beginning to think it was really pretty easy. Sirius had carried on as usual for a few days but had soon realised that something was wrong. He tried asking but when he got no response he seemed to have given up. Soon a week had passed and it was the day before they were due to go back to Hogwarts.

Harry was playing a more complicated version of gobstones with James. They had gotten bored of the normal rules and added more in. This made it more interesting but mostly because neither of them could remember the rules they had put in place so they were both failing hopelessly.

Sirius had disappeared a while before to pack and had been gone for nearly an hour. Harry and James had spent a while speculating about why it was taking him so long, eventually coming to the conclusion that his trunk had eaten him but not bothering to go and check.

They finished up their game and headed off to their separate rooms to do their own packing.

Harry dragged his trunk out from under his bed and flipped the lid open glancing around his room to see where he had put his belongings. He cursed inwardly as he saw a figure emerge from behind the door, swiftly closing and locking it. He really needed to start looking around rooms when he entered.

"Sirius, why are you in my room?"

"Because it seems to be the only way I can get you on your own for more than two seconds. What's going on?"

Sirius face held an expression somewhere between anxious and pissed off and the longer Harry took to reply, the more the angry side seemed to win out.

"Nothing."

"Then why are you avoiding me?"

"I'm not."

"Liar."

Harry didn't reply. He wasn't purposely trying to be annoying, he just couldn't think of anything to say.

"I'm not stupid Harry. What's wrong? One minute we were fine and then you were avoiding me like the plague. Is it completely unreasonable for me to want to know why?"

It wasn't. That was the problem. Harry realised that when he had made his plan he had forgotten the important factor that this was Sirius, and Sirius didn't give up that easily. Of course he wanted an explanation but somehow Harry didn't really love the idea of saying "well, if you must know: I am definitely gay and I really fancy you even though we agreed that this was just messing around and you're still adamant that you're completely straight. By the way, I also think you're kidding yourself there".

Nope that didn't sound like a suitable response at all.

So instead, he just shrugged.

He should have known that wasn't the best thing to do.

"Fine. But I'm not unlocking the door until you give me a proper answer so you might either want to think of one or start choosing which body part you're going to eat first when the hunger kicks in."

Sirius flopped onto Harry's bed and lay on his bad with his arms behind his head, looking at the ceiling and humming some song which Harry didn't know under his breath.

Harry leant against the wall silently, preparing himself for the long wait.

The clock on the table by his bed ticked loudly, the hand moving at a snail's pace around its face showing that an hour had passed, then two. Half an hour later he heard Mr and Mrs Potter shout that they were going to bed and ten minutes after that James knocked on his door to tell him the same thing, saying that he had already knocked on Sirius' and there had been no reply so he assumed he was asleep. Harry yelled back through the door that he was going to sleep too and Sirius smirked on his bed.

Another hour passed and Harry was beginning to get tired. His legs were aching from standing up but he refused to sit down and let Sirius know it. Every time he glanced in Sirius direction he was humming a new song, still staring at the ceiling as if Harry wasn't even in the room.

Eventually Harry caved in and spoke. It was inevitable really, Sirius was just too stubborn.

"Sirius this is pathetic. There's nothing wrong."

"There is. But if you're determined that there isn't we can stay here; I am perfectly comfortable."

Harry glared.

"Maybe I've just decided I don't want to be your whore anymore, maybe I'm bored with it."

"Yeah see I thought of that, but you seemed pretty into it the last time- definitely not like you were getting bored."

Harry turned his head so Sirius couldn't see his blush. It was a pointless action, Sirius had brought up that night to embarrass him and he didn't have to be able to see his face to know it would work.

"So the real reason would be nice. I thought we were mates Harry? I just want to know if I did something."

Something inside Harry clicked, that was just too much.

"Mates? Tell me Sirius, do you give all your mates blowjobs? Do you make out with James or Remus in broom cupboards? How about Peter? Do you ever kiss him?"

"You didn't seem to be complaining at the time!"

"I don't understand how you can keep saying we're just mates, it doesn't make sense."

Sirius had sat up on the bed with his legs over the side. He looked thoroughly confused.

"I thought we agreed this ages ago- we're just messing around. I'm not gay. I thought you weren't either."

Harry rolled his eyes. Sirius saw the expression.

"What's that look supposed to mean?"

"Just that I don't know any other "not gay" people who regularly get off with their MALE friends."

Sirius stood up suddenly and crossed the room to where Harry was standing so that there faces were only inches apart as if if he stood close enough and spoke loudly enough Harry would finally be convinced.

"I am NOT gay."

Harry looked at his eyes briefly before grabbing Sirius' shoulders and pulling him in firmly and kissing his lips. Sirius didn't react for a second but then he was kissing back, opening his mouth to let Harry's tongue in. Their tongues twisted together and Sirius pulled Harry closer, winding his arms tight around his shoulders. Harry heard Sirius moan slightly as he ran his tongue lightly over the roof of his mouth. He pulled away and stepped back, away from Sirius' arms.

"Sure you aren't."

It took Sirius a moment to register what was going on and remember what they had been talking about. Then he turned round and unlocked the door, disappearing down the landing into his own room.

Harry closed the door again and sat down on his bed remembering the look on Sirius' face just before he had left. It was a mixture between shock and anger. Like he wanted to hit Harry but his body was too surprised to follow his orders.

He fought the urge to run down the corridor and find him, tell him that he was sorry and he hadn't meant it, settle for being used again, go back to playing Sirius' stupid games because at least that meant he would get to touch him. Harry lay back and sighed, it was too late now and he knew it was better this way.

* * *

A/N: Do you hate me now? Hehe

Review!


	18. Chapter 18

A/N: Apologies for the shortness of this chapter. I will post another one very soon to make up for it. Unfortunately these little inbetweeny bits just can't be avoided…

Chapter 18

James didn't seem to notice the silence the next morning. He babbled full speed the whole way to the station and hardly stopped to say goodbye to his family before continuing his rambling and getting on the train.

Mrs Potter hugged Harry and told him how lovely it was to have him and that he was welcome anytime he wanted. She didn't notice his lack of smiles either.

He was trying to be upbeat about it, telling himself that he was better of without some twisted relationship that didn't really mean anything but it was hard to convince himself that this was true when the closest friend he had in this time wouldn't even look at him.

Sirius wasn't overly cheerful either. He hid behind his hair, occasionally wringing his fingers together or shifting uncomfortably on the spot.

When they got on the train he sat in the corner, watching out of the window as the train started to pull away. James was still talking, mostly to himself, Harry occasionally nodding or making an appropriate sound, when Remus and Peter came in.

"Hey guys, knew we'd find you."

"Moony! How was Christmas?"

Now that James had someone to talk to, Harry decided that it was ok for him to stop pretending to listen.

After talking to James for a while, Remus seemed to notice the lack of conversation from the other two. He looked at each of them curiously. Harry gave him a half-smile and Sirius was too busy staring out of the window to even notice. He looked like he was going to ask a question but then stopped, carrying on his conversation with James instead.

Harry went back to his own thoughts, willing the time to pass as quickly as possible.

* * *

The welcome feast passed in the same stony silence. It wasn't so noticeable with all the general babble around them but Harry couldn't stop wishing that Sirius would at least look at him.

Sirius left to go up the dormitory pretty much as soon as they reached the common room, muttering something about being tired. Peter agreed and went with him, although in his case it was probably true as he had been yawning the whole way though the feast.

Once it was just Harry, James and Remus the atmosphere became a lot more relaxed. Harry found himself joining in with the conversation and almost forgetting his situation with Sirius. Almost.

They were all laughing at a story Remus had told about his holidays when they heard a soft voice behind them.

"Hi."

They turned round to see Lily Evans standing behind them. She seemed to be talking to all of them but she was looking at James. None of them replied.

Remus and Harry looked at each other awkwardly and James just stared at her like she had just sprouted fluorescent orange wings.

"James, I was wondering if we could talk?"

For a second Harry really though that James might say no but then he nodded and stood up, following Lily out of the portrait hole.

Harry breathed out heavily.

"Well that was a bit awkward."

"Yeah… Speaking of awkward, what's up with you and Sirius?"

Harry had been expecting him to ask, he had been shooting him curious looks the whole way through the train journey and then the feast, but he still hadn't thought of a suitable answer.

"Nothing really. We just… had a bit of a fight about something, not big deal."

"Lover's quarrel then?"

Harry's head snapped up. Remus had an infuriating knowing smirk on his face.

"What do you mean?"

"Oh come on Harry, I'm not an idiot."

"Does anyone else know?"

"Doubt it. They're all blind around here."

Harry nodded, not knowing what to say. Luckily Remus spoke for him.

"I don't mind Harry. It's great if it makes you happy, just… at the moment, I get the feeling it isn't."

Harry nodded again and looked up at Remus. His face was sympathetic but not pitying and it made Harry want to spill out everything that had ever worried him to the boy sitting next to him because he looked like he would really be willing to listen. So he did.

Well, he didn't tell him everything. Not about the time travelling or the general woes of being Harry Potter because how could he possibly understand that? But he did tell him about Sirius and as he told him he felt as if half the problem had been lifted away.

Remus had an aura of calm around him that seemed to infect Harry and it definitely didn't hurt that he seemed to agree with him. Having someone else tell him that he had done the right thing, as opposed to been stupid and acted like a complete girl, made the whole situation a lot easier for him.

They talked for a long time, first about Sirius, then about any other random thing that came into their heads, until they were the only ones left in the common room. They were just considering going to bed, assuming that Sirius would already be asleep, when James bounced in through the portrait hole, the biggest grin Harry had ever seen plastered all over his face.

"Oh, you guys are still up. Thought you'd be asleep by now."

He sat next to Remus, still smiling, and stretched out happily.

"Go on then. Tell us what happened."

He twisted round to face them.

"She wants me back! She said she was sorry and that she freaked out but she just needed time to think but she wants to be with me! We're getting married Moony!"

Remus squealed in a slightly girlish way that Harry made a memo to himself to remind him of later and they all piled together in a group hug.

"Are Pads and Wormtail in bed already?"

"Yeah, they were tired."

"Damn… I guess I'll tell them tomorrow then." He carried on grinning at nothing in particular as if the space in front of him had just told him the war was over and Remus chuckled to himself. Harry hadn't seen James look so happy since he got there and it was quite infectious.

By the time they got to bed they were all feeling happy and bubbly and Harry fell asleep straight away, smiling to himself.

* * *

A/N: Thanks again so much to everyone who reviewed the last chapter- it makes me want to update quicker.

Do it again?


	19. Chapter 19

A/N: Voila! Two chapters in two days- how good am I? It's a really long one too.

I'm in a really good mood because we had a snow day today. A Monday with no school is definitely the best kind. Love it.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter- I didn't reply because I knew I was posting again really soon but they all made me very happy :D

Chapter 19 

The first early morning of a new term is always a mood killer. Even the happiest person can't avoid being a tiny bit grumpy the first time they are woken up before the sun has even had a chance to rise properly.

Harry opened his eyes, still buzzing a bit with leftover happiness from the night before. He grinned when he heard James swear as Remus bumped into him as they stumbled around half asleep. He was still feeling cheerful when he walked out of his curtain straight into Peter apart from the slight tired thudding in his head. It wasn't until he saw that Sirius had already left without them that the first morning grumpiness finally got him.

It took James a while to notice since it always took at least half an hour for him to open his eyes properly but even he registered that it was strange for Sirius to be up first and he tended not to notice anything unless it was directly pointed out to him.

They didn't see Sirius at breakfast either which was even more unusual as he never ever missed meals. It wasn't until they went back up to the common room to fetch their stuff for their first lessons that they found out where he had been.

He was sitting on one of the couches with a girl who Harry had never seen before. She was very pretty; slim, with long, brown hair and big dark eyes. Her face was flushed with happiness as she talked to Sirius and it was hardly surprising since almost every girl in the room was looking at her with extreme jealousy.

James shot a confused look at Remus before heading over to the pair.

"Hey Sirius, where were you earlier?"

"Oh I woke up early so I went down breakfast. I would have found you afterwards but I met Jen on the way down."

He vaguely gestured to the brown haired girl.

"I didn't think you'd mind."

"No it's fine it just seemed weird."

James still looked confused. There were so many things wrong with that sentence. For one, he was pretty sure there wasn't a recorded time in history when Sirius had woken up early and done anything other than go back to sleep. For another, there was definitely no time when Sirius had preferred to sit and talk to a girl than pour water on his sleeping friends. He generally stuck to the rule that girls were useful but not fun for talking to.

Jen looked at her watch.

"Oh wow, its way later than I thought. I have to go to herbology now. It was good talking to you though Sirius."

She smiled before grabbing her bag and heading out of the portrait hole, glancing briefly over her shoulder before she climbed out.

There was a brief silence before James spoke.

"I thought you said you already went though all the girls in the school."

"I have, but she's gotten prettier since last time."

James looked like he was going to say something else but then he remembered what he had needed to tell Sirius in the first place.

"I have news!"

"What news?"

"I was going to tell you last night but you were asleep and then this morning you were gone so really it's not so much news anymore but…"

"Get on with is Prongs."

"Lily and I are getting married!"

Sirius was silent for a moment, his mouth dropping open as he stared at his best friend.

"But I thought…"

"Yeah I know but she said she just needed time to think and she wants to."

Sirius seemed to finally come to his senses. He jumped up and hugged James happily.

"That's great mate, congrats!"

"Be my best man?"

Sirius blinked in surprise before breaking out in a huge grin.

"Course."

As they went down to their first lessons, Sirius and James were talking a mile a minute about the wedding and Peter and Remus were smiling at their friend's happiness. Harry tried to act pleased and join in with the conversation but all he could think about was the girl Sirius had been with earlier.

Had he really liked her or was it just an attempt to prove he was straight?

Was he going to keep talking to her?

Were they going to go out?

What if James getting engaged made him think that it was more important for him to get a girlfriend?

"Harry?"

He realised he must have been looking a bit distant and shook his head.

"Sorry what?"

"Potions is this way."

He looked around and noticed that it was only him and Sirius left and that he had almost walked straight past the potions corridor.

"Oh yeah, right."

Sirius laughed and carried on talking about something Harry wasn't really listening to. He seemed to have gotten over his sulk from the day before. Was that because he was so distracted by James' announcement or because of Jen? Or maybe Harry was reading into it too much and it was just because he didn't want to fight?

He swung the door open and they took their normal seats at the back of the room, earning a glare from Slughorn for being late. Harry hardly registered the glares anymore.

He didn't take anything in for the whole lesson but for once it wasn't Sirius distracting him but his own thoughts. As awkward as it had made him feel, a part of him missed Sirius' hand on his leg making him feel flushed and the devious look he would get on his face. Potions went so much slower when he wasn't being yelled at by Slughorn for talking and laughing too much and then carrying on anyway because he always found whatever Sirius was saying funny or interesting. Sirius was still talking just as much as before but it was all about the wedding or something funny that Jen had said and he was too distracted by his own thoughts to listen anyway.

Slughorn seemed fairly surprised that the two of them had managed to get through the whole lesson without losing any house points or getting a detention and Sirius commented on how they were going to have to try harder or risk losing their reputation. He was brainstorming ways of making up for their lack of criminal activity in the potions lesson as they went to lunch. The gleeful look on his face as he schemed was almost enough to make Harry forget his bad mood; Sirius always looked like a happy five-year old when he was plotting and it was really cute. However, he was quickly reminded of his previous troubles when Jen appeared in front of them just as they were about to enter the Great Hall.

"Hey Sirius."

Harry could have sworn he saw a flash of annoyance on Sirius face as she cut him off half way through a sentence but then the look disappeared.

"Hi."

"I was wondering if you wanted to hang out? For lunch."

"Yeah sure, sounds good."

He turned to Harry.

"Can you tell the others where I went?"

"Yeah ok."

Sirius shot him a dazzling smile before slinging his arm around Jen's shoulder and walking away. Harry trudged grumpily into the Great Hall and sat down next to Remus.

"Hey, how was potions?"

"Ok."

"Where's Sirius?"

"With Jen."

Remus looked at Harry sympathetically. James joined in the conversation.

"That the girl he was with this morning?"

"Yeah."

Lily, who was sitting next to James, suddenly became interested.

"Sirius met a girl he hasn't got off with yet?"

"No, he's going round them for a second time. Remember Jen Leonard?"

"Wasn't she the one who used to have the wonky pigtails?"

"Yeah that's her."

"Oh… I give it a week."

Lily went back to her lunch and Harry smiled appreciatively, deciding that he liked that take on the situation. A week he could deal with. He spooned some potatoes onto his plate while listening to Lily reel off a list of Sirius' last 70 girlfriends. She didn't do it in a mean way; she was funny, and she made Harry feel a lot better even though she didn't know she was doing it.

After lunch, Peter ran off to catch up some work in one direction and Lily and James disappeared in the other, leaving Remus and Harry on their own with an hour to kill before the next lesson. They wandered aimlessly into the courtyard, talking about the most random subjects that came into their heads which included sporks, magic party poppers and how Harry had never seen one and why someone had decided that frog shaped chocolates were a good idea. Harry had never really thought about it but when he did it seemed a bit strange that anyone would think that people would find something that looked like a frog appetising.

Remus sat on one of the lower walls. Harry sat next to him but after a while he got bored of sitting and tried walking along it. He managed to keep his balance and was just considering taking up a career in the circus when a third year yelled to him from the ground and he slipped, falling on his backside on the stone floor.

"Are you Harry James?"

"Yes."

He looked up at the third year feeling sore and annoyed. Whatever he had to say better be important.

"Dumbledore told me to find you."

"Oh… what about?"

"He didn't say. He just said to get you."

"Right. Thanks."

The kid nodded and ran away. Remus slid off the wall and held out his hand, helping Harry to his feet.

"Any idea what that's about?"

Harry shook his head and the two set off towards Dumbledore's office. When they reached the bottom of the stone staircase Remus looked at his watch.

"Lessons in 5. I'll see you later."

"Yeah, bye."

Remus gave a small wave. Harry waited until he had gone round the corner before turning back to the stone gargoyles.

"Hi."

Nothing happened. Harry sighed, he had spent way too much of his life trying to guess Dumbledore's passwords. It would be nice if one day he would tell him before asking him to go to his office.

"Chocolate frogs?"

Still nothing. Harry wracked his brain for any type of sweets that Dumbledore liked. In his mind he saw Dumbledore sitting in his office on Harry's first day in this time, eating liquorice allsorts.

"Liquorice allsorts?"

The gargoyles began to move, revealing the staircase and Harry cheered inwardly. Two guesses, that had to be a record.

He walked up the stairs thinking about what Dumbledore might say to him. He guessed it had to be something to do with going home but other than that it could be anything from he was sending him back right that minute to he was going to have to stay forever. He knocked on the heavy wooden door.

"Come in."

He turned the handle and edged around the door nervously.

"You wanted to see me Professor?"

Dumbledore smiled at him, his eyes twinkling, immediately putting Harry at ease.

"Ah yes Mr Potter, take a seat."

Harry sat on one of the chairs in front of Dumbledore's desk. Dumbledore watched him over steepled fingers.

"I wanted to fill you in on my progress with this potion of ours. I believe I am nearly finished and if all goes according to plan we should be able to get you back around the end of May."

Harry nodded. May was about three months away. That could either be a very short time or a very long time depending on how things went before then. A week ago it would have seemed like no time at all but if it was going to be three months of watching Sirius and Jen together it could seem closer to an eternity.

"I believe it is important that we don't leave it longer than that as I'm not sure the potion will be strong enough if you remain here for over a year."

Harry nodded again.

"What should I tell everyone? About why I'm leaving."

"I suggest you tell them you're going home."

"Right. Thanks sir."

"I will see you again soon."

Harry turned and headed back down the stairs, trying to remember what lesson he was supposed to be in. As he passed the gargoyles he saw someone move out of the corner of his eye. He spun round to see Remus leaning against the other side of the gargoyle.

"Hey, I thought you were in class?"

"I was going but then I changed my mind. Thought I'd hang around and find out what that was about."

"It wasn't important."

"Sure, I went up to see the headmaster a few weeks ago for a chat too. He does like to talk about quidditch with the students every now and then. Going to tell me?"

"It's really not important."

"I'm not an idiot Harry. I know there's something weird going on; I knew when you first came here."

Harry knew he wasn't lying. He remembered the questioning looks Remus had shot him in his first few weeks and the way he always seemed to be trying to read his mind. The questions he had asked when no one else had.

"It's not a big deal. He just wanted to tell me… that I have to go home."

"Home?"

"Yeah."

"So you're leaving?"

"Yeah."

"Why?"

"I just do. It's complicated."

Remus raised one eyebrow. There was silence for a moment as they just looked at each other.

"I'm not going to give up you know. I'm not going to settle for "it's complicated"."

"There's nothing else I can say. It _is _complicated."

"Start with home. Where is that? Because I know you're not from Durmstrang, you could hardly even remember what country it's in the first time I asked."

Harry said nothing.

"You can try and think of a lie but I will get the truth out of you eventually. You suck at lying."

"How did you know I was lying?"

"Because no one lives in Bulgaria their whole life and has an English accent."

"Oh..."

He was surprised Dumbledore hadn't noticed that. But then he probably had, he just didn't think anyone else would pick up on it, and he was right… except for Remus.

"Yeah. So what's the truth? I've been trying to work it out all year and so far I've narrowed it down to either: you're running away from the ministry, you are a death eater spy or you have really embarrassing parents so you invented a new identity so no one would know you were related to them. Any of those close?"

Harry laughed.

"Not really."

"Not even a bit?"

"Nope."

"Well you're going to have to tell me then because those took ages to think up."

He looked around. They were still standing in the middle of the corridor and although everyone was in lessons you could never be too careful in Hogwarts; the walls had ears.

"Ok, but not here."

They went outside, back to the wall they had been sitting on when the third year had come for Harry. Remus looked at Harry expectantly. Harry knew he could trust him but it was still difficult to think of a way to phrase the situation.

"Well? Come on, the suspense is killing me!"

"I'm from the future."

Well, nothing like being blunt.

"About 20 years in the future."

Remus blinked but recovered a lot quicker than Harry had expected.

"That is so much cooler than my spy theory."

"Did you really think I was a death eater?"

Remus shrugged.

"Not really, I just couldn't think of anything else. Sirius is the creative one. So you're not a death eater in the future?"

Harry laughed.

"No."

"Are there death eaters in the future? Like is you-know-who still around?"

"No, he's gone. I can't give details and stuff though."

"Fair enough."

Harry had expected more fuss than that but then Remus was generally more mature than everyone else; he tended to understand most things.

"So why are you here? Was it some kind of top-secret future experiment or was it just an accident?"

"I'd like to say that it was the top-secret experiment one. That sounds a lot cooler."

Remus laughed.

"So it was some kind of really unglamorous accident then?"

"Yeah. I got cornered in a back alley and force-fed mystery potion and woke up here."

"That's pretty exciting really. Not as good as if it was some high-tech Department of Mysteries thing but…"

"Not as dull as I had an accident in potions class."

Remus nodded and looked thoughtful.

"So what _can_ you tell me about the future then?"

Harry thought a bit. A part of him just wanted to tell Remus everything; it was so nice to be open for once. He was pretty sure he could say some things so long as he was careful about details.

"If you ask questions, I'll answer as much as I can."

Remus rubbed his hands together gleefully and smiled.

"Ok, do they still have Slytherins in the future?

"Unfortunately yes."

"Damn… Do they still smell bad?"

"Worse."

Remus scrunched his nose up in disgust.

"What are your friends like in the future?"

"It varies; sometime they're my favourite people in the world but sometimes they drive me up the wall."

Remus laughed and nodded sympathetically.

"Pretty much like James, Sirius and Pete then. Are they as amazingly awesome as us?"

"Do you have any idea how much you sounded like Sirius just then?"

Remus punched Harry's shoulder and Harry pushed him so he nearly fell off the wall. They talked a bit longer until it started to get dark. They could hear everyone else coming out of their classes and heading off to dinner. Neither of them were very hungry so went back to the common room.

After talking to Remus, Harry felt happier than he had done for ages. It felt great not to have to hide everything for once. Sure he couldn't tell Remus everything but he was just pleased there was one person he didn't have to lie to.

The happy feeling lasted for about 3 seconds after he entered the common room. He stopped talking mid-sentence and Remus followed his line of vision to where Sirius and Jen were sitting.

She was sitting on his lap in one of the chairs, their lips glued together. It looked like they were trying to eat each other.

When she heard the portrait close Jen looked up and giggled sheepishly, pulling the strap of her top onto her shoulder.

"Sorry guys, we thought no one was here."

She giggled again. It was high pitched and girly and it made Harry want to slap her. Remus saved him from having to talk by speaking for him.

"It's ok, we're going to the dorm now anyway."

Harry managed a brief half-smile at the pair which he was pretty sure looked more like a snarl. Jen beamed back at him before turning back to Sirius who was looking at Remus and Harry with a strange expression on his face and seemed to have completely forgotten Jen was there.

Remus placed his hand on Harry's shoulder and pushed him gently towards the stairs. When they got to the dorm Harry flopped onto his bed and whacked his pillow viciously. Remus watched him worriedly.

"They'll be over by the end of the week. Sirius never stays with the same girl for long."

"That's not the point though is it?"

Remus knew it wasn't; even if Sirius wasn't with Jen he wouldn't be with Harry.

"Do you have a boyfriend in the future?"

"No."

Harry felt a sudden rush of homesickness; he missed not being interested in relationships and he missed laughing at Ron's obsession with girls with Leo in detention. He missed having people around who knew everything about him, it was better with Remus knowing some things but he would never know the important things and Harry couldn't kid himself that it was the same.

Most of all he missed Sirius. His Sirius.

The more grown-up version who loved him cared about him and never hurt him, the one who knew when it was time to stop messing around and be serious about things.

That Sirius looked after him and loved him unconditionally. He wrote him letters four times a week and stayed up late at night to talk to him when something went wrong, even when he was completely exhausted and couldn't stop yawning.

Harry wanted to talk to him so badly but all he had now was Remus and the younger version who was too busy snogging his new girlfriend to care.

How he was feeling must have shown on his face because Remus sat on the bed next to him and rested a hand on his shoulder.

"You ok?"

Harry shrugged and looked at his feet, trying desperately hard to conceal the tears that were threatening to fall.

"Just missing home."

Remus put his arms around his shoulder and Harry hugged him back. They just sat there, hugging each other, for ages until they heard the door open.

"Hey guys, do you want…?"

Harry and Remus looked towards the door at Sirius who was looked at his friend which a confused expression. Remus withdrew his arms from around Harry and raised his eyebrows questioningly at Sirius.

"Do we want what?"

"I was gonna ask if you wanted to come down to the kitchens but if you're busy…"

Now he just looked angry. Harry knew exactly what he thought but right at that moment he couldn't be bothered to contradict him. Let him be immature, let him think what he wants.

"Nope we're not busy are we Harry."

Remus looked at him pointedly and he shook his head vaguely. They went down to the kitchens but it wasn't a very pleasant trip after that. Remus was nervous, Harry was still upset form earlier and Sirius kept snapping at everyone.

Harry was relieved when they got back to the dorm so he could close the curtains and pretend to be asleep.

* * *

A/N: Please review? :D


	20. Chapter 20

A/N: This one's pretty long as well. Well, more averagely long but still- that's better than short right?

Thanks to everyone who reviewed (again) I love you guys.

It's been a great week for me, hope yours' have all been good too. Here's 20…

Chapter 20

It took less than a day for Harry to realised he had seriously misjudged Remus Lupin, both in this time and his own.

He had always thought of Remus as the sensible one of the Marauders. After all, he was the prefect and he always seemed much more mature than the others. In some ways this opinion had been right; he wasn't crazy or impulsive in the way Sirius was and he wasn't as over dramatic as James could be at times and he wasn't as hyper or excitable as both of them were but he was definitely not boring.

After the awkward trip to the kitchens Harry hadn't seen much of Sirius. He was around but he was usually out in the grounds with Jen and when he was around Harry he didn't talk to him much. Harry still missed having him around but in all he decided that if Sirius was going to be with Jen all time, it was better if he didn't have to see it.

When he wasn't in lessons he spent most of his time with Remus. This made doing his homework a lot easier as Remus was much more helpful than Sirius. Most of the time they did made-up activities that Remus had created, which usually consisted of daring each other to do ridiculous things that they knew the other would never be able to complete.

James sometimes joined in these games when Lily was busy since he would normally hang out with Sirius who was generally occupied. Harry liked that best because James always had new ideas and he liked getting to know his dad; he'd never exactly had the chance before.

"Ok, see down there?"

James pointed out the window at a small group of Slytherin's standing in a huddle next to a tree by the black lake. They were huddled against the wind and looking over their shoulders every now and then. Harry got the impression that whatever they were talking about was serious. He could see Snape in the middle of the group.

"Yeah I see them."

James grinned mischievously.

"They look pretty absorbed right?"

"Yeah…"

"So they'd probably be a little pissed if someone was to interrupt them, you agree?"

"Yeah…"

Harry knew the dare wouldn't just consist of annoying the Slytherins. Sure that would be a stupid thing to do when they were so outnumbered but it just wasn't bad enough to merit the evil grin on James' face.

"Well I dare you, both of you, to go do that…. By jumping in the lake and splashing them… in your underwear."

Remus opened and shut his mouth like a fish.

"But it's freezing out there. I mean it; there was ice on that lake this morning!"

"Scared Moony?"

"Of course not. I was merely pointing out that if I get frostbite, which is likely, you will be paying my hospital bills."

James slapped him on the back cheerfully.

"No worries mate, Pomfrey can reattach fingers no problem."

So Harry and Remus set off down to the lake with an amused James following behind them. They hid behind a tree near to the Slytherins and dumped their robes in a pile. Then, shivering, they waited for a moment to come when everyone in the group was distracted.

"Ok… now."

"You go first."

"No you I insist."

They both looked at the dark water and gulped.

"Together?"

"Ok."

"On 3?"

"No way, I don't trust you."

James pushed them so that they were out in the open.

"Get on with it will you."

They took one last glance at the Slytherins before sprinting towards the lake and jumping in, sending huge waves of water spraying over the shocked group.

The Slytherins yelled at them as they swum, half laughing, and half gasping for air, towards the other bank. They hauled themselves out and lay breathless on their backs for a few seconds before the cold kicked in again and they started shivering even worse than before. Luckily, James had reached them with their robes and wands so they cast quick warming charms on themselves and redressed.

"Was it a bit cold?"

Remus glared at James.

"You just wait mate. We'll get you back for that."

"I'll take that as a yes."

"You know how they say going in cold water is like being stabbed with hundreds of little knives?"

"Yeah."

"Well it was so much worse than that."

James giggled gleefully and half walked, half bounced back up to the castle, a vengeful werewolf and a very cold time traveller trailing behind him, both plotting how they were going to punish him.

James was saved from their revenge for a while as they ran into Lily in the common room. She stayed and talked to them for a while before going for a walk and taking James with her. Harry and Remus decided to go for a walk too since there wasn't a lot to do in the common room.

They wandered in the general direction of the courtyard, which was were they usually went if they had nothing else to do since it was sheltered and hardly anyone went there so they could talk freely without worrying about being overheard.

Harry vaguely registered seeing Sirius and Jen out of the corner of his eye on the way down but he was too busy laughing at Remus' suggestion of what they should get James to do to really notice.

They mucked around, walking on the top of the walls for a while before realising that they should have been back 20 minutes earlier and having to sneak back to the common room, trying to stick to the shadows.

They fell through the portrait hole the portrait hole laughing. A couple of fifth year girls who liked to act really mature rolled their eyes at them which made them laugh even more. They stumbled over to the couches where James was sitting with Lily and collapsed next to them.

"Where have you too been?"

"Scheming against you."

"Oh scary."

Lily laughed.

"You want any help?"

Harry grinned at her, he liked Lily.

"If we do you'll be the first person we go to."

She nodded and smiled.

"So what are you doing here then? Things gone wrong with Jen already?"

Harry's head snapped up at Remus' question and for the first time he noticed that Sirius was sitting in one of the chairs next to the couch. He had been too busy laughing when he came in to look around much.

"It's been four days Moony. Even I don't get through them _that_ fast. I'm allowed a break right?"

It should have sounded reasonable but the bite in Sirius' voice made it sound a little defensive. He started to wonder why before quickly pushing the thought to the back of his head; he was doing well at getting past this thing with Sirius and thinking about anything to do with his new relationship wasn't going to help that cause so he distracted himself by hitting Remus on the head with a large red and gold cushion. The resulting pillow fight succeeded in wiping any thoughts other than 'duck' and 'ow' out of his brain entirely.

As the fight got more intense, most of the other people in the common room decided to take cover in their dorms and after a while Harry and the three marauders were lying on the floor with the remains of the cushions strewn around the place, panting for breath. Remus feebly hit Harry with the back of his hand.

"That was pathetic."

"Yeah well I'm tired now."

James looked round at the empty common room.

"Where'd everyone go?"

Sirius laughed, he had his head resting against Harry's shoulder so he could feel his laugh go straight through him.

"I think we scared them off."

"Where's Petey?"

"Detention. Should be back by now though."

James shrugged it off.

"I'm shot. I'm gonna go to bed."

He made an effort to sit up before collapsing back onto the floor, elbowing Remus in the stomach and winding him.

"Too tired and achy. We should just crash here."

After a couple of minutes of none of them moving they decided that that was a better idea than trying to struggle up to the dorm. They summoned as many pillows as they could find that they hadn't already destroyed and made a pile. Eventually they had to get up to shift around on the pile but by then they had forgotten about the aching with the new game of making a comfy bed. James called one of the house elves that they had befriended through their many trips to the kitchen, who was more than happy to bring them up food and butterbeer and they lay on the pile of pillows in a circle with their heads together, talking, joking and drinking butterbeer.

They gradually went to sleep, one by one. James went first which was very noticeable as the conversation suddenly got a lot quieter. Sirius fell asleep soon after, his head lolling to the side so that his hair was spread everywhere, tickling Harry's nose. Harry and Remus stayed awake a bit longer, talking in hushed voices but soon Remus fell asleep to and Harry was left alone.

He lay glaring at the ceiling. He felt like he had been trying to get to sleep for hours but the food was keeping him wide awake and the pillows had gotten twisted up so they really weren't as comfortable anymore. He could hear James' soft snoring and Remus breathing and every time he moved he got a mouthful of Sirius' hair which seemed to be magnetised to his face. Every time he tried to brush it away Sirius would shift in his sleep so it flopped all over him again. After the fifth or sixth time this had happened he cursed under his breath and heard what was unmistakably a giggle coming from under the sheet of hair.

"Oh you git."

Sirius laughed again softly.

"Sorry, couldn't resist. I was asleep the first time I promise."

"Sure you were."

They fell silent. Harry looked up at the ceiling again even though it was just as uninteresting as it had been every other time he looked. He could feel Sirius hair tickling his ear. It was itchy and he wanted to brush it away but a part of him couldn't. That piece of hair was the only part of Sirius that had touched him for days, excluding a couple of times they had bumped into each other during the pillow fight, and as long as he could still feel him there it was as if nothing had happened.

"So, I er… I haven't really seen you much recently… anything fun happened?"

Harry would have laughed at how awkward conversation between them had become but he really didn't think that would help much.

"Oh um, not really. I've just been around. Hanging with Remus."

"Yeah…"

Harry looked over at Sirius to see if he was going to say anything else. He was looking upwards, his eyes fixed on he ceiling as Harry's had been moments before. His stare was blank, his eyes and mouth were missing the smile which Harry had taken for granted was almost always there; it never seemed to be gone for long.

He fished around in his head for a question but nothing came so he returned to his staring. Neither of them talked for so long that Harry would have sworn Sirius was asleep if it wasn't for the fact the he was lying way too still.

"James told me about the thing in the lake earlier."

Harry was so lost in his own thoughts by the time Sirius spoke that he jumped at his voice.

"Oh yeah, it was fun. In a cold, wet kind of way."

"Sounds it."

Sirius sounded wistful and Harry thought that if he could read minds Sirius' would probably say that he wished he's been there. But that might have been wishful thinking.

"You should come next time and help us think up something for James, we're running out of ideas… if you're not busy I mean."

Sirius turned and flashed him a brilliant grin. Harry hadn't seen him smile like that in ages and he cursed himself as his heart fluttered around his chest.

"Too busy to watch Prongsie make an arse out of himself? Never."

Harry laughed.

"Great friend you are."

Sirius reached out and flicked the side of Harry's head. Harry turned and stared at him.

"Did you just flick me? That's pathetic!"

"Sh'up I'm too tired for proper retaliation."

Harry laughed again and Sirius leant his head against Harry's. After a few minutes they were both fast asleep. Sleep somehow seemed to come to Harry a lot easier when he could feel Sirius' head against his cheek.

* * *

A/N: Review!!!!


	21. Chapter 21

A/N: I don't really like this chapter. I just don't. However, I feel it is necessary to have it so oh well.

It's quite short and I feel it probably has a few mistakes in it since I can't seem to make it right but bear with me. I will do a better one in a bit.

Chapter 21

Harry was rudely awoken the next morning by a small Gryffindor who trod on his stomach. He was about to sit up and yell at said Gryffindor but when he saw her red face and apologetic expression he just didn't have the heart to. Instead, he dragged himself to his feet and looked around.

The others were all still fast asleep on their pillow pile. James had spread out in the night so that he was taking up most of the space and had one of his arms on Remus' face. Remus' sandy hair was sticking out in clumps and Sirius was curled up with a tiny smile on his face.

"Cute aren't they?"

Harry turned around to see and amused looking Lily sitting on one of the chairs which couldn't have been too comfortable since it didn't have any cushions on it.

Harry laughed and nodded, a mischievous smile spread across Lily's face.

"Wanna wake them up?"

"Anything particular in mind?"

She waved her wand and the lamp next to her turned into what looked a lot like a power hose and she pointed it at the sleeping group.

"I'll spray them, you hit them with this."

She chucked a pillow in Harry's direction which he deftly caught.

"On 3. 1…2……3!"

A jet of water shot out of the hose. It was more like a waterfall than a hose and all three sleeping Marauders screamed and rolled out of the way, crashing into each other and knocking over several pieces of furniture in their efforts to escape the water.

Eventually Lily let up and turned off the hose but Harry wasn't sure if that was because she was being nice or just that she was laughing too hard to hold it steady. James staggered to his feet and shook his hair out glaring at her.

"Evil."

She grinned and kissed him on the cheek.

"That's why you love me."

James huffed but couldn't think of a suitable reply so Lily ruffled his wet hair and laughed.

"Dry off we're going to breakfast."

At the word breakfast both James and Sirius grinned and darted towards the portrait hole. James magically dried himself and grabbed Lily on the way.

Harry and Remus grinned at each other and followed them. By the time they reached the other side of the portrait hole, James and Sirius were waiting impatiently.

"Go a bit slower guys."

Sirius shook his hair and drops of water sprayed all over them.

"Thanks mate."

Lily brushed a drop of water off her nose.

"Aren't you going to dry?"

"Nope, I look sexy wet."

Everyone rolled their eyes and Harry tried really hard not to agree but it was a lost cause; he did look very sexy.

Unfortunately Harry wasn't the only one who thought so.

They all turned when they heard a voice from around the corner.

"Hey you woke up!"

Jen came around the corner with two friends who looked at each other and giggled when they saw the group by the portrait hole. She linked her arm with Sirius' and carried on talking, hardly taking a pause to breathe.

"I walked past you guys on the way to breakfast and I didn't want to wake you up cos you looked so cute but since you're here now do you want to do something?"

Sirius shifted uncomfortably on the spot.

"Well I was gonna go get breakfast…"

"We can find something to eat. Come on it'll be fun. We _have_ to do _something_! It's the weekend."

She looked up at him and he fixed a slightly strained smile on his face; he didn't like missing meals.

"Yeah ok then. See you guys later?"

"Yeah sure. Bye."

She waved goodbye to her friends, who giggled again, and dragged him off around the corner. Sirius looked over his shoulder briefly before disappearing round the corner.

The others continued on their way down to the great hall. Harry watched his feet as he walked, feeling significantly less cheerful than he had done before. It had seemed so much like it used to be until Jen had shown up.

But then why would anything have been different?

* * *

"Truth or dare?"

"Truth."

"Aw come on that's no fun!"

"Tough luck it's my choice."

"Fine."

Remus shifted his weight on the wall and looked around as if he would see something that would give him inspiration.

"First kiss?"

"That's a pretty crap question considering you wouldn't know the person but Cho Chang."

"You're right: that was a bad question. I'll ask another one."

"Nope too late now."

"Aw no way!"

"You had your chance."

Remus good-naturedly pushed Harry who wobbled a bit before regaining his balance and pushing back. Remus had to grab a nearby branch to stop himself from falling.

"Hey!"

Harry turned in the direction of the voice and got knocked off the wall by Remus.

"Ow!"

Remus laughed and jumped down. Harry looked up to see that the voice had come from James who was now looking down at him with a massive grin on his face.

"Any special reason why you decided it would be a good idea to try and kill me?"

"Don't exaggerate mate, you only fell a few feet. Five tops."

Harry glared.

"Anyway I came to tell you that Sirius was looking for you. He looked kind of flustered about something."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, I dunno either but he wanted to talk."

"Alright thanks."

James nodded and smiled before wrapping his arm around Lily's waist and leading her off around the corner.

"Wonder what that was about."

Harry shrugged and hauled himself back onto the wall.

"You gonna go find him?"

"No point, it will take hours to find him and I'll see him at dinner in five anyway."

Remus shrugged and hit Harry with a branch he had found while Harry was on the floor. Harry laughed and soon they were back to their fight.

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

They were late going down to dinner in the end since they had to spend and extra 10 minutes trying, unsuccessfully, to fish bits of twig out of their hair. When they burst in through the big doors they got quite a few stares which Harry put down to the fact that their hair was a complete mess and Harry had a hole in his robes. Remus could be a vicious fighter when he wanted to be.

"Get attacked by a mountain troll on your way down here?"

Harry rolled his eyes at James and reached over him to get the potatoes while Remus told them where they'd been.

"Not one mountain troll mate, five. Dunno where they came from but suddenly they were in front of us waving their clubs around and grunting so we had to overpower them and knock them out then carry them to the edge of the grounds and set them free. They are rehabilitating as we speak. It took a few minutes; hence why we are late."

James just nodded and went back to eating his food as if people told him they'd fought off five mountain trolls every day.

Lily and Remus talked about something they were doing in herbology that none of the others really understood for a while. Harry got quite a bit of amusement from watching James try and get Lily's attention while she was engrossed in conversation about Swedish Firecabbage.

He laughed and looked up at Sirius who he was pretty sure would find it amusing as he did but he couldn't catch his eye since he was busy stabbing a piece of pasta quite violently.

"Oh hey, James said you wanted to talk?"

He looked up vaguely.

"Yeah, it's not so important. Later,"

If that was it then Harry was very glad he hadn't bothered searching the whole school for him.

Harry was distracted from wondering why Sirius was being so grumpy by a small shriek from two seats down. Peter's food had spontaneously exploded all of him and the third year girl sitting next to him.

This effectively snapped Lily and Remus out of their firecabbage reverie and the whole group left early to help Peter clean up, partly because he would probably have been ambushed by Slytherins if he'd gone alone.

"What did you do to them mate? They've hardly been near the rest of us all year and they're getting you every other week."

Peter shook a piece of carrot out of his hair and shrugged.

"Dunno. Guess it's my turn. It was Remus last year."

Remus nodded in agreement.

"Doesn't matter, we'll get them back. When they least expect it. Right Pads?"

Sirius had been staring out of the window and jumped when he heard his name.

"Sorry what?"

"I said we'll get them back. What's wrong with you?"

"Nothing, I'm fine. Yeah, they'll never know what hit 'em."

He talked to James about setting their hair on fire and spiking their drinks with super-hot exploding chilli powder but it didn't really seem like his heart was in it.

It was harder to get the food off Peter's robes than anticipated as it seemed to have some kind of magic repelling charm on it so by the time they had finished it was late and they were all tired since they'd been up into the early hours of the morning the night before.

Sirius went to go fetch cookies from the kitchen after deciding he had a craving and he dragged Peter with him since no one else wanted to and Peter owed him for picking bits of mashed potato out of his hair by hand.

James decided to stay up and talk with Lily for a bit longer so Harry and Remus headed up to the dorm without him.

Harry collapsed on his bed and sighed as his head hit the soft pillow. Remus laughed.

"You going to get changed?"

"Sh'up I'm asleep."

"Sure you are."

Harry's eyes snapped open as he felt someone tickling him all over. Remus was standing by his own bed pointing his wand at him with a huge grin on his face.

"Hey! Stop! Cut it out!!..."

Remus stopped and Harry glared at him.

"What was that for?"

"It was for your own good. You need to get changed."

Harry grumbled but got up and walked to the cupboard with his clothes in.

"Ok mum."

Remus rolled his eyes and disappeared into the bathroom. Harry was just pulling off his shirt when the door opened. He looked over his shoulder and saw Sirius entering the room cautiously.

"Hey."

"Hi… James said you were up here."

"Well he was right."

"Yeah, listen I wanted to talk to you about something."

Harry turned round intrigued.

"This the same thing you were going to talk to me about earlier?"

"Yeah. It's just…"

Sirius trailed off as Remus came out of the bathroom. Remus seemed to notice the silence that his entrance had brought.

"Bad time? I can go back in if you want."

"No it's fine. I just… didn't know you were up here."

Remus nodded and went to his bed, shutting the curtains around him.

"You were saying?"

"Um… You know, it doesn't really matter, and I'm kind of tired so… Anyway, see you in the morning."

Sirius went over to his own bed and shifted some things around on the bedside table randomly before shutting the curtains himself. Harry stared at the red barrier for a moment before finishing changing and settling down in his own bed, suddenly not as tired anymore.

He hated how thoughts of Sirius kept him up at night.

* * *

A/N: Review! I feel greedy because I have over 200 now (!!!) but I really love them!


	22. Chapter 22

A/N: Ok, here's another one. I feel I'm getting pretty speedy with this updating stuff recently.

Chapter 22

Sundays were generally pretty relaxing. No one was up much before midday and, even when everyone in the school was awake, the school was so big and everyone so spread around it that it seemed practically empty.

Harry was awake before the other boys in his dorm so he sat on the window seat looking out the window at the huge lake below. He remembered the summer with Ron and Hermione, lying around on the grass by the lake just relaxing.

It was too cold to spend much time outside yet but it was getting warmer every day and Harry was pretty sure it would be sunny enough before he left.

He scanned the room for something to do but there was a limit to the activities available when everyone was asleep and he didn't particularly want to go down to breakfast by himself. He thought vaguely about writing a letter to someone before realising that, in this time, he had no one to write a letter to.

Before he could get too stuck into feeling sorry for himself he heard someone behind one of the curtains stirring. Remus stuck his head out to see if anyone was up.

"Hey… time?"

Harry glanced at his clock.

"10:27."

"Ok, give me a second."

He disappeared back behind his curtains. Harry heard a lot of shuffling sounds before Remus emerged, fully dressed.

"Let's go."

They slid out of the room quietly and walked down the empty corridors to the Great Hall.

On the way down Harry noticed that Remus looked tired and then felt guilty when he realised that it was the full moon soon. He had completely forgotten. Remus had been so good to him over the last week and he hadn't even remembered that. He decided to be extra specially nice to him. Of course, Remus had no clue that Harry knew about his problem so he couldn't be too strangely nice or he would just think his new friend was weird.

The two boys sat down at the almost empty Gryffindor table. Remus talked and ate a piece of toast while Harry piled a mountain of bacon onto his plate. He always seemed to crave the stuff.

By the time they had finished, Peter and James had joined them. They were shortly followed by Lily and a few of her friends.

Harry finished before the others and set off back up to Gryffindor tower on his own, promising to meet the others later.

The common room was empty apart from three fourth years who he didn't know who giggled when he walked in. It was a choice between sitting in there and attempting to do anything with them staring at him or going up to the dorm so he picked the latter.

When he entered the dorm he saw Sirius standing by the window, staring blankly into the distance and frowning. At first Harry was surprised to see him but then he realised he hadn't been at breakfast.

"Hey."

Sirius didn't reply.

"What's up? Not like you to miss meals."

Sirius spun round to face him looking angrier than Harry had ever seen him. He took an involuntary step backwards.

"What's going on with you and Remus?"

Harry blinked.

"What?"

"You heard what I said."

"Yeah I heard, I just thought I must have heard wrong since it was so stupid. We're friends."

Sirius rolled his eyes.

"Don't give me that. You spend every waking minute together. Every time I see you you're with him."

Now Harry was getting angry too.

"Well we don't have much choice do we? You ditched us to go off and snog Jen and James is always with Lily. Mind you, at least they aren't so single-minded they don't even bother to TALK to us."

"So you admit it you are together."

Harry could have hit him. Where had he managed to get 'yes, me and Remus are shagging' from that sentence?

"Move on fast don't you."

"What the fuck are you on about?"

"Don't act stupid you know exactly what I mean."

"No, strangely enough I don't. Care to explain?"

"Forget it. Just go and shag Moony or something."

"You're pathetic! Why do you even care if I'm with Remus anyway?"

They were so close that they were practically spitting in each other's faces.

"Well?"

Sirius exploded.

"Because you're mine, not his!"

Harry took a step back, his face cold.

"Well that's funny cos about a week ago I could've sworn you said you weren't gay."

Sirius said nothing and Harry laughed but there was no happiness in his voice.

"You are such a fucking hypocrite!"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means why is it ok for you to be with Jen but I have to be on my own? How come I have to sit and take it but you can come here and scream at me when I haven't even done anything? Grow up!"

Harry stormed towards the door. He had never been so angry with Sirius before. It was strange feeling as, until very recently, he could only remember feeling happy around Sirius, past or future. The closest he had gotten to angry was a bit annoyed and now he couldn't even look at him.

He was almost out of the door when Sirius grabbed his arm and spun him round. Harry opened his mouth to tell him to get off but the words were stopped by Sirius kissing him roughly. Harry pushed him away.

"Go back to your girlfriend Sirius.

"We broke up. I've been trying to tell you…"

Harry stared at him.

"Oh… I get it now."

"Get what?"

Sirius looked confused. Harry briefly though that the clueless expression made him look cute but pushed the thought away angrily.

"I'm not just here for you to get you off when you can't find anyone better."

"It's not like that."

"Sure it's not. You are such a self-centred asshole!"

Harry opened the door but Sirius grabbed his shoulder and spun him round again.

"Harry will you just listen to me?"

Harry pulled himself out of Sirius' grip.

"No. I'm sick of listening to you and now I'm going."

"I just…"

"Sirius I don't care. Leave me alone."

Sirius pushed the door closed and leant on it so Harry couldn't get out.

"No. You need to listen to me. It will only take a second."

"Which is a second too long. Let me out."

"Harry…"

"LET ME GO! I don't want to talk and I don't want to listen. I fucking hate you right now."

Sirius took a step back and Harry seized the moment to open the door and run. He didn't stop until he reached the library where he sat behind one of the shelves at the back where no one ever went. He buried his head in his hands and forced himself not to cry. He spent almost an hour sitting there; thinking, levitating bit of fluff with his wand and occasionally muttering to himself.

"Stupid git."

"You know talking to yourself is the first sign of madness?"

Harry jumped slightly at the voice and looked up. Remus was smiling at him sympathetically.

"What's the second?"

"I don't know, probably answering yourself."

Remus sat down next to him and put an arm around his shoulder and they sat in silence for a while.

"Sirius said you had a fight. Are you ok?"

"Right now? No. But I'll get over it."

Harry knew that was true. It just didn't really believe it right at that moment.

"He's not that horrible you know? Just a little emotionally retarded."

Harry laughed, it was a bit forced but the sound made him feel better- a little bit anyway.

"Listen, I said I'd go see Professor McGonagall to catch up on some stuff but I can stay if you want some company."

Harry shook his head. He knew Remus always had quite a bit of work to catch up on because of all the time off he had because of his transformations.

"No, I'll be fine. Thanks though."

"Antyime."

He squeezed Harry's shoulder before getting up.

"See you later."

"Bye."

After Remus had gone Harry stood up and walked around a bit, looking at the books on the shelf behind him. He had picked a good place if he didn't want to be found since the shelf was full of dusty History of Magic books that looked like they hadn't been read in centuries. He figured it was unlikely anyone would ever go down there since no one in their right minds would want to read up on History of Magic out of lessons. He sat down; satisfied in thinking he could probably stay there forever if he wanted.

He was wrong.

"History of Magic… Good choice. I always go for river plants of the late 1500's when I don't want people to find me. You know they have a whole shelf for that. Spiders everywhere. Nightmare."

Harry didn't say anything. Then he wished he had as Sirius took his silence as permission to flop down on the floor beside him.

"Moony said you were down here."

Harry still didn't speak. He knew he didn't have to. Sirius was unnaturally good at talking, even if no one was answering and plus, if Harry stayed silent for long enough he might just go away.

"I know you think that if I think I'm talking to myself and wasting my time I'll go away but I won't cos I know you're listening."

It was a bit creepy how he knew that. But then, maybe it was just really obvious.

"Did you mean what you said before? That you hate me I mean."

Harry sighed and shook his head, still looking straight forward.

"No."

"I wouldn't blame you if you did."

"I don't like you very much but I don't hate you."

Sirius looked at his shoes and bit his lip.

"You know when I said I wasn't gay?"

Harry didn't reply. He had a feeling the question was hypothetical.

"Well that was complete bullshit."

That made Harry look at him. He didn't know what he expected Sirius to say but it definitely wasn't that.

"I guess you probably already knew that. Moony would probably give you a whole load of psychobabble about why I couldn't admit it before but mostly it comes down to I'm a wimp who's scared of what people would say."

"I broke up with Jen yesterday morning because she's all girly and annoying and a shit kisser and I don't fancy her and I missed you. I wanted to tell you but you were always with Moony and I got jealous and I yelled and I'm really really sorry but it was just because… well because I'm a prat really and I'm ranting. Please say something. Anything will do."

"Sirius, you're an idiot."

Harry looked up at Sirius. He was looking at his hands and his hair was hanging down so he couldn't see his face. Harry brushed his hand over Sirius' cheek and he looked at him, surprised by the sudden contact.

"But you're _my_ idiot."

He leant in and kissed Sirius' lips gently. Sirius' face split into a huge grin and he pushed Harry down so he was lying on top of him and kissed all over his face, making him laugh.

"Ew Siri that's gross!"

He ignored him and carried on before pressing their lips together again. He kissed him again and again, hundreds of short, soft kisses to his lips before they sank into each other, winding their arms around each other tightly and twisting their tongues together each other, both remembering the taste and feel of the other.

They heard a gasp from behind them; a very shocked looking second year was standing at the end of the shelf with a battered textbook. He backed away and then ran off.

Sirius looked down at Harry, who was looking worried, and stroked his cheek with the back of his hand.

"Maybe I should have gone with different section."

Sirius laughed.

"Nah, I'm sure he won't be _too_ scarred. Who knew there was actually someone n this school who likes History of Magic?"

"He'll probably tell everyone you know?"

"Let him."

Harry smiled and laced his fingers behind Sirius' head, pulling him down to kiss him again.

They were still there when Remus came to check on them an hour later. He grinned to himself and ran back to the common room.

* * *

A/N: Go on, review. Something even happened in this chapter and all!

Please?


	23. Chapter 23

A/N: Sorry this one took a bit longer than the last few (only four days so it wasn't to long really). I was in hospital for a couple of days (that's got to count as a proper excuse right?). Anyway, I'm going to be off school for a little while so I might be able to write more for a bit.

Then again I might just laze around for a while…

Chapter 23

Harry spent the rest of the day with Sirius, wandering around the grounds and occasionally stopping to kiss or terrorize passing Slytherins.

It was weird to spend time with Sirius again after a week of avoiding each other and it was even weirder to walk around with him openly holding his hand or wrapping his arm around his waist.

They didn't see very many people around and the ones they did see didn't seem to even notice them let alone look at them weirdly so Harry assumed that the second year hadn't gotten round to telling anyone yet. Hhe was pretty sure that when he did they would be the talk of the school.

He didn't really mind too much, probably because he didn't even live in this time, but he was worried that Sirius might freak out a bit. He'd been ok so far but… well, no one was going to just sit back and accept that Sirius Black was gay and let him get on with it and Harry knew he cared what people thought, even if he tried to act like he didn't.

He decided not to think about it. It was Sunday and they had the rest of the day to just laze around and be hyper and happy before they had to worry about anything like that. Leave that for later or tomorrow.

"I can't wait until the summer."

Harry smiled and rested his head on Sirius' shoulder. They on a window seat in one of the empty classrooms.

"I was thinking that earlier."

"Really? Weird. Great minds think alike and all that I guess."

"Yeah."

"We can go swimming and stuff. Drown Slytherins."

Harry laughed.

"Sounds good."

"Last chance. After this summer there'll be no more Slytherins to hand for us to terrorize. I'll miss them."

"No you won't."

Sirius laughed.

"Yeah you're right. Just think, one day we will no longer have to see Severus' Snape's slimy face again. Bliss."

A dreamy expression passed over his face and Harry laughed at him, not wanting to tell him that he would be seeing Snape quite a lot in the future; no need to ruin his dream.

They talked about Slytherins for a bit longer, and summer and swimming and the motorbike that Sirius wanted to get when he left school; Sirius was surprised at how much Harry knew about bikes, which was mostly due to the other Sirius and his obsession with them.

To Harry it seemed to get late way too quickly.

"We should probably go back up soon. McGonagall will freak if we're out late; we're supposed to have grown out of that."

Harry pulled a sulky face.

"Don't want to."

Sirius smiled and leant towards him, gently kissing him before standing up and pulling him to his feet.

"Neither do I but we have to. I don't have any time left for more detentions; I'll be here until a year after we leave."

"Ok ok I'm up."

Sirius slid his arm around Harry's waist and kissed his temple, making the other boy smile and fight back a girlish giggle that he knew Sirius would tease him for endlessly if he let it out.

It took way longer to get up to the common room than it normally would have done since they had to keep stopping every time Sirius had an urge to hug or kiss Harry which was quite often; he seemed to be trying to make up for every kiss he missed in the week when they weren't talking. They made it eventually though.

The moment after they stepped through the portrait hole was deadly silent. There were quite a few people in the common room and every single one was staring at them. Harry was almost grateful when James broke the silence by running at them, yelling.

"You little shit!"

Sirius took a step backwards straight into the wall as his friend grabbed his shoulders and shook him. Lily stepped in and dragged him off with a bored look on her face.

"Calm down James, he didn't kill anyone."

"You couldn't have told me?! You know- your BEST FRIEND!"

"Sorry mate I…"

"Moony knew, even Snape knew before I did. I had to find out from Malfoy!! Since when do we have secrets?"

Harry looked between the two nervously. James looked a bit angry and very hurt but Harry was pretty sure he was exaggerating, Sirius just looked like he'd been backed into a wall which, of course, he had. Everyone was still staring at the scene and making no effort to pretend otherwise. James had noticed this too and glared at them all.

"What are you lot staring at?"

Harry almost laughed at the stupidity of the question, it was fairly obvious what they were staring at, but he held it in; he had a feeling James wouldn't appreciate being laughed at at the particular moment in time. Everyone shifted uncomfortably and pretended to look away.

"Well?"

"Well what? I dunno what to say mate. I should've told you and I'm sorry."

James shook his head.

"I tell you everything, _everything._ Didn't you think to mention at some point that you are gay?"

"Must've slipped my mind."

James rolled his eyes but to everyone's relief he seemed to be calming down. Lily spoke and immediately killed the tension.

"James, are you done, because if you are I would quite like to squeal and be girly about this for a minute or two?"

James seemed to think about it for a moment before an amused smile appeared on his face.

"Yeah I'm done, go for it."

"Thanks… Oh my God you guys!!!!"

Harry covered his ears to try and block out her high pitched squeals.

"This is so incredibly sweet!"

"Um… thanks?"

"You are so cute together, Remus don't you think they're cute together?"

"I guess…"

Sirius glared.

"Don't encourage her."

"He's just being honest. I'm so happy for you!!"

"Really? I never would've guessed."

Harry turned to Sirius.

"Is she like this every time you get together with someone?"

"No, normally she laughs and says it'll last a week. This is new."

"Yeah well normally you go out with idiots; I like Harry. And anyway it's hot, all the girls agree. Well, except Jen, she's fuming. She doesn't really like the idea of being dumped for a guy."

Lily didn't look like she felt particularly sorry for Jen and after watching her be all over Sirius for a week Harry couldn't bring himself to be sorry either. He was sure she was a very nice person but jealousy is a strong thing.

"Lily."

"Are you done being girly now?"

Lily thought for a bit before nodding at her boyfriend.

"Yup, all done."

"Good, it's starting to get creepy."

Lily stuck her tongue out at James who feigned shock before doing the same back. Harry watched them in amusement; they really were perfect for each other.

The other three Marauders and Harry left them pulling faces at each other and went up to the boys' dorm.

"Told you they'd be ok with it."

Sirius raised his eyebrows at Remus.

"I'd hardly call James' reaction 'ok'."

"He's just annoyed cos you didn't tell him. He'll be fine."

Sirius just nodded and silently changed. Harry looked at Remus nervously, who gave him an encouraging smile. He was pretty sure that James was ok with it really but he hoped that Sirius wasn't going to start going weird on him now that everyone knew.

His thoughts were cut off by a pair of arms winding around his waist from behind. Sirius pressed a soft kiss to his neck and murmured softly into his ear so that only he could hear.

"Night beautiful."

Harry smiled contentedly and leant back against him briefly.

"Night."

Sirius let go and smiled at him before crossing the room to his own bed. Harry grinned at Remus who shot him a look back that said 'see? Nothing to worry about'. He settled into his bed feeling warm and happy.

He was just drifting off to sleep when he heard the door open on the other side of his curtain and footsteps make their way over to the other side of the room.

"Padfoot?"

He heard James' whispered voice and Sirius' sleepy mumbling in return.

"Yeah?"

"Sorry about earlier."

"I should have told you."

"Well yeah but… I'm happy for you you know? Lily seems to think you really like him."

"Yeah I do."

"Then that's cool. You deserve someone."

"Thanks… Can I go to sleep now?"

James laughed quietly.

"Yeah sure you lazy mutt. Night."

"Night."

Harry heard James cross the room again to his bed and shut the curtains and then there was silence again apart from the peaceful breathing of the other four boys. Harry smiled and slept.

* * *

A/N: review!!!!!


	24. Chapter 24

A/N: I know I said I would update quickly but obviously I lied- I had my very first writer's block that I've had so far on this story. It's ok though because I will finish this if it kills me :D

Chapter 24

"Going down the stairs, we're going down the stairy stairs…"

"Stop singing."

"And up the corridor and past the muggle studies room…"

"Sirius, shut up."

"And down another flight of stairs and down we go down down…"

"Someone kill him."

"We're nearly at the entrance hall just one more flight of stairs to go…"

Remus and Harry groaned and covered their ears and James made stabbing motions behind Sirius' back as he continued his irritating song.

"La la la la la la down the stairs la la la la…"

James decided that he'd had more than enough of Sirius' singing for first thing in the morning and grabbed at his neck. Sirius spluttered and flailed his arms around. A small first year hurried past looking scared and trying desperately hard not to look at them. James only released him when he was laughing too much to stand up straight.

Sirius glared at his laughing friends.

"That hurt."

None of them looked even vaguely sorry. Sirius turned to Harry.

"Are you really just going to let him abuse me like that?"

"Yes."

Sirius looked hurt.

"Some boyfriend you are, I don't know how you live with yourself."

"It's hard but somehow I manage."

Sirius tossed his hair in a very girly manner and stomped off towards the great hall. Once the others had calmed down a bit they followed after him.

When they reached the big doors Sirius was waiting outside for them.

"Sirius, you do realise that waiting for us after you've stormed off kind of defeats the point of storming off in the first place right?"

Sirius rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, yeah. Well I'm a wimp and I don't want to go in on my own."

James looked like he was going to make some kind of teasing comment but he stopped when he saw the nervous look on Sirius' face and squeezed his shoulder instead.

"Come on man it'll be fine. They'll stare a little then they'll get over it. Hell, it's _you_; you'll probably start a new fashion."

Sirius gave his best friend a half-smile and nodded.

"Yeah ok I'm good."

When they opened the doors Harry was immediately aware of every eye in the room turning towards them. The room seemed strangely silent apart from muffled whispers and giggles from some of the girls. It seemed amazing to him that people would be this interested.

They made their way to their usual seats, acting as close to normal as they could with everyone still staring at them.

James and Remus had swung into protective mode, James sitting beside Sirius in silence and glaring fiercely at anyone who so much as glanced their way and Remus sat next to Harry, talking as normal in his soft voice but occasionally sending a death glare towards the group of girls on the Hufflepuff table who were giggling and glancing over their shoulders at the group.

For the first time ever, Harry was grateful for every person who had ever gawped at his scar in his own time; it made this new staring a lot easier to deal with. He didn't even really mind it at all if he was honest. Sure he would rather they didn't but at least this time it was for something he was happy about. He could tell Sirius didn't agree with that particular sentiment though; he had never seen him look so uncomfortable or awkward. Normally he loved being the centre of attention but only when he chose to be.

The group ate breakfast in record time, none of them really wanting to hang around, and grabbed their stuff for their first lesson.

Harry and Sirius headed down the corridors to potions, early for the first time ever. Sirius was quieter than usual but Harry didn't want to ask about it. Partly because he didn't want to annoy him and partly because he was worried that Sirius might have started reconsidering whether it was a good idea for them to be together.

He wasn't sure if he would cry or stab him if he did that but he knew he definitely wouldn't take it well.

He looked up when he realised that Sirius had stopped and was looking at him.

"What?"

"Nothing, just… you look worried about something."

"Nope I'm fine."

Harry did his best impression of someone who was fine, smiling brightly up at Sirius and putting on a cheery voice.

"Ok, only you were biting your lip and staring at the floor which normally signifies worried."

"Really Sirius, I'm ok."

"Cool. But you know I'm not going to change my mind right?"

Harry didn't say anything. There was no point in denying it when Sirius had the creepy ability to see exactly what he was thinking.

"When I said that I didn't care what everyone said I meant it. It's hard yeah but I still want us to be together."

Harry looked up and smiled again but this time it was a real smile. Sirius grinned back and they carried on down the corridor. When they were just around the corner from the potions lab, Sirius stopped again.

"You know we're early right?"

"It's shocking. We are clearly letting out standards slip."

"I hope you realise that Slughorn will probably burst an artery. I'm not sure if we should do that to him."

"I know. I almost feel bad."

"Same. I mean, I know he always tells us to get there on time but I don't think he really expects us to turn up early. Makes me think that maybe we should wait for a bit."

Harry glanced sideways at Sirius. He had a wicked glint in his eye.

"Hmm… I think you have a point there. Wouldn't want to damage the potions teacher so close to the NEWTs would we?"

"My point exactly."

And with an evil looking grin, Sirius grabbed Harry's wrist and pulled him into a nearby cleaning supplies cupboard. Harry looked around and raised an eyebrow.

"Nice."

"When did you get so picky?"

"I'm not being picky but there are bottles of rat poison around the walls."

"I bet this is where Snape and Filch have sex."

"Ewwwwww!"

Harry turned around and went for the door handle but Sirius grabbed him around the waist and pulled him back.

"I didn't mean it. Everyone knows that Filch and Snape only ever shag in the girls' loos."

Harry rolled his eyes and laughed, turning around so that they were facing each other again. Sirius smiled and leant down to kiss him on the lips, murmuring against them softly so that Harry could feel the words against his mouth.

"You have the cutest laugh."

Harry pressed his lips against Sirius', winding his arms around his neck and melting from his words and the feel of him being so close.

* * *

"Oh what a surprise. Nice of you to join us Mr Black, Mr James. As much as I'm sure I would enjoy hearing whatever creative excuse you have come up with today we have a lot to get through. Take a seat."

Harry and Sirius slipped into their seats at the back. They were 10 minutes late. The fact that they were very lucky to have escaped a detention seemed to have completely passed over Sirius' head, or maybe he just didn't care, as just 5 minutes after sitting down he got bored and decided to distract himself by magically poking Snape in the back. The pair dissolved into giggles as Snape predictably jumped and turned round angrily every single time. This game continued for a while before Slughorn noticed.

"Mr Black, do you _want_ another detention?"

Harry could almost hear the smartass comments whirling around Sirius' head but he managed to restrain himself, looking at his potions book as if he was suddenly very interested.

Slughorn went back to his lesson and Harry sunk into a bored stupor. There was something about potions that always bored him rigid. He glanced over at Sirius who seemed to be concentrating very hard. This was so out of character that Harry did a double take. He was just about to ask what the hell had gotten into him when he saw that Sirius wasn't looking at the top of the desk but at something he was doing underneath it.

He was pointing his wand at part of the desk and muttering something under his breath. When the wand touched the wood it steamed and seemed to melt, forming a smooth tunnel. He kept pushing it until it fell out of the other end of the tunnel, onto Harry's lap. It was followed closely by a small piece of paper. Harry unfolded it and read.

_This tunnel is dedicated to Harry James and all the poor abused teenagers who, in the future, are forced to endure double potions NEWT classes .But mostly just Harry because he has a sexy smile which I know he will be doing round about now._

Harry tried to fight the grin that came to his face but failed. Another note landed on his lap.

_Just like that._

He scribbled a note on the back of the paper.

**Wow, no one's ever dedicated a tunnel to me before. I'm honoured.**

_You should be, and did you know you mouth out the words when you write? So cute. _

* * *

A/N: review please!!! It keeps me motivated


	25. Chapter 25

A/N: check out the long chapter :D

Thanks muchly to everyone who reviewed the last chapter.

I feel like I should say something else because I'm in a chatty mood but if I'm honest there really isn't anything else I need/want to say. Here's 25…

Chapter 25

Harry made a firm decision that he would apologise to Ron for every time he had made fun of him for obsessing over relationships the second he got home.

As the days wore on he found himself spending all of his time with Sirius and when he wasn't with him he spent most of the time thinking about him. Every now and then Sirius would be doing something (detention) without him and he would hang around the castle with Remus, trying desperately hard not to talk about Sirius, because he knew how annoying that was, and realising how difficult that was when someone took up most of your thoughts. Fortunately Remus seemed to find it more amusing than irritating.

He didn't have a lot of experience with relationships, considering that the only girlfriend he'd ever had was Cho and he wasn't sure she really counted, but he had decided that on the whole they made life better.

But of course, being Harry Potter, there was always something that would get in the way of anything good in his life and generally the bad things in his life were much more extreme than anyone else's. After thinking about it for a while he had managed to convince himself that the best way to deal with problems was to ignore them and that was what he proceeded to do. It was working very well for him until Remus decided to go and be all logical and break all his reasoning up into tiny pieces.

"Have you told him yet?"

Harry considered pretending that he didn't know what Remus was talking about but he knew that Remus knew he knew so really it would just be a waste of time.

"Nope."

"When are you going to?"

"I'm not."

Remus sighed as if he was explaining something to a small child who just wasn't getting it.

"You can't just not tell him. You're leaving at the end of May and I think he might just notice."

"Yeah but I won't be there will I? So he can't be mad at me."

Remus blinked.

"Harry, that is so completely not the point and you know it."

Unfortunately Harry did know it. However, as long as he told himself he didn't know it he was perfectly ok.

"Remus, there's no point in telling him- I'll still have to go. I don't want to wreck the last few months I have with him by telling him that I'm leaving."

"Ok, but I just thought you cared about him a little bit more than that."

Harry flinched.

"I do care about him."

"No, because if you cared you would tell him. You would want to be honest and you wouldn't want to hurt him more than you had to."

"How is telling him going to stop him hurting?"

"Because as much as it will hurt him that you have to leave, it will hurt a lot more if you just disappear without saying goodbye AND didn't tell him about it. Don't argue; you know I'm right."

Harry sighed. He knew he was right but he still didn't like it.

"Ok, I'll tell him. But I'll do it when I find a good time ok?"

"No, there won't be a good time. Tell him today."

"Today?! Don't give me a chance to prepare or anything."

Remus shook his head.

"Today. Trust me, its better to get it done quickly."

He stood up and brushed his robes off.

"I have to go. I said I'd meet Lily to go over some work she didn't understand. Let me know how it goes ok?"

Harry nodded and watched Remus walk away wondering how he had convinced him to do exactly what he had decided not to in less than ten minutes.

* * *

Half an hour after his discussion with Remus, Harry found himself sitting on his bed, staring at the wall, waiting for Sirius to come back from his detention with James.

He was pretty sure that Sirius would come back alone since James had arranged to meet Lily after but a very large part of him wanted him to change his plans and come up with him so that he would have a decent excuse to give Remus as to why he couldn't do what he had promised.

No such luck.

Sirius opened the door and came in, smiling at Harry as he dumped his bag on his own bed. He crossed over to where Harry was sitting and pulled him to his feet, hugging him tightly.

"Hey, have fun without me?"

"Yeah, it was a rave. Remus is tons more fun than you."

Sirius pulled away with a look of fake hurt Harry laughed and hugged him again.

"Joking."

"So you did miss me horribly then?"

Harry rolled his eyes.

"Sure."

"Good. Detention was awful, we had to clean out bedpans and Pomfrey wouldn't let us talk or anything. Oh yeah but we decided that Wormy has a secret girlfriend he's not telling us about."

Harry decided to let the conversation carry on for as long as possible before dropping his bombshell.

"Oh yeah? Why's that?"

"Well, you know how he's always disappearing?"

Harry nodded.

"Well we reckon that he has a secret girlfriend he goes to see and he's not telling us cos she's ugly or a Slytherin or something equally embarrassing."

"Maybe."

Harry knew he couldn't tell Sirius what he thought he knew about Peter's disappearances but it was difficult not to warn him.

"We're going to ask him about it. You do anything fun while I was being harshly punished?"

"Um… not really."

Sirius looked at him with a strange expression on his face.

"You ok? You've gone all quiet."

Harry took a deep breath. Now or never.

"Yeah… there was actually something I wanted to talk to you about."

Sirius unwrapped his arms from Harry's waist and stepped backwards.

"Go on."

"It's kind of complicated."

"Is it bad?"

Harry nodded. Sirius ran a distressed hand through his hair.

"Harry, I've done "we need to talk" a hundred times. Are you breaking up with me?"

"No, no it's not that."

Sirius looked relieved. He smiled and sat down on Harry's bed, pulling Harry down to sit next to him.

"Well what is it then?"

Harry fished around for the right words in his head. Sirius was too close and he couldn't think of anything to say.

"Come on babe you look like you're dying. It can't be that bad right? Just tell me."

"Ok, it's just… I have to leave."

Sirius blinked slowly.

"Right… what do you mean "leave"?"

"I have to go home. At the end of May."

Sirius sat back a bit while he processed the information.

"So you're going back to Bulgaria? But I mean, you can come back right? You're nearly 18; you don't have to stay there."

Harry shook his head.

"I can't come back."

"Well why not? You could stay here until the end of the year and then come lstay with me if you don't have anywhere else to go."

Harry looked down at his hands. He could feel Sirius playing with a piece of his hair. Telling Remus had been so much easier.

"I can't come back because I'm not going to Bulgaria. I'm not _from_ Bulgaria, in fact I've never even been there. I'm from… I'm from the future."

"The future."

He looked up to see Sirius looking at him in disbelief.

"Yeah."

"This is a joke right?"

"No, I'm serious. I'm from about 20 years in the future and Dumbledore's found a way to send me back. The potions will be ready at the end of May so that's when I have to go."

Sirius stood up and paced across the room. Harry watched him nervously. Eventually he turned round and faced Harry again.

"So this whole time we though you were some transfer student from Bulgaria it was just a lie?"

Harry nodded.

"And you're actually from the future?"

He nodded again.

"And you have to go back in three months?"

"Yes."

Harry watched his boyfriend, silently praying that he wouldn't pick this moment to storm out of the room and leave him. He looked pretty angry.

"Shit."

"Sirius…"

Sirius cut him off before he could say anything which was probably good since he had no idea what he was going to say anyway.

"So basically, in three months you're going away and then I'm never going to see you again?"

Harry nodded silently. It wasn't exactly true; he would see him again but by then there would have been two wars and a spell in Azkaban which Harry was pretty sure would be more than enough to erase any memory of knowing him in the first place and, of course, by then Sirius would be his Godfather.

"Well that's just great isn't it? Bloody fantastic."

Sirius crossed the room and grabbed a cloak from the messy pile on his bed and headed for the door.

"Sirius, please don't go. We need to talk about this or… or something."

"I can't talk about it right now; I need to clear my head. I'll see you later."

Harry watched him helplessly; he _knew_ this was a bad idea.

"Where are you going?"

"Just for a walk."

He turned around and looked at Harry with a slightly softer expression on his face.

"I'll see you later, promise."

He left the room leaving Harry alone, silently cursing Remus for telling him to be honest and himself for listening.

* * *

A/N: Review!!! It makes my millennium every time.


	26. Chapter 26

A/N: I'm sorry it took so long this time. The next one should be faster- personal stuff etc etc - you know the drill.

Sorry that it's so stupidly short but I didn't really want to just run it into the next bit. Next one will be longer (I think).

Anyhoo, on with the show…

Chapter 26 

"Sounds like he took it pretty well."

Harry stared at Remus in disbelief. The two were sitting on Harry's bed eating every flavour beans.

"Pretty well? You call walking out taking it "pretty well"?"

"Come on, it could have been way worse. He didn't yell or break up with you on the spot and he _did _say he would see you later. That doesn't sound a lot like "I hate you and I never ever want to see you again" to me."

Harry spat an ink flavoured bean into the bin and picked another one.

"Of course he's going to see me later; we live in the same room."

"I dunno; I'm pretty sure he could still avoid you if he wanted to."

"Not making me feel better."

"I didn't mean he _is _going to avoid you I just meant… oh forget it, you know what I meant."

"Yeah ok."

Remus grimaced as he put a particularly disgusting coloured bean in his mouth.

"Ok, these beans are starting to make me feel sick and you need to stop moping. Let's go do something."

"Like what?"

"Like… quidditch."

Harry raised an eyebrow.

"You don't like quidditch."

"I know, but you do. I can bear it. Let's go."

As he wasn't being given much choice on the matter, Harry decided it would be less hassle just to do what Remus told him and follow him down to the quidditch pitch. They couldn't really play with two people but they had a good game of dodge the bludger which was suitably childish to take Harry's mind off his worries for a while.

By the time they got back to the dorm James was already back. Harry wasn't in much of a mood for talking so he feigned tiredness and went to bed, ignoring James' pleas for him to stay up a bit longer and play gobstones.

After lying in bed unable to sleep for nearly an hour he began to think that maybe going to bed early so that he was alone with his own thoughts and completely unable to sleep wasn't the best idea; He could hear James, Remus and Peter yawning and getting ready to go to sleep themselves so there was no point in getting up and talking to them.

He heard their breathing settle as they all fell asleep but, despite the quidditch, he remained wide awake.

It seemed like hours of silence had passed before he heard the door creak open and someone take a cloak off and throw it somewhere. He debated whether or not to pretend to be asleep as soft footsteps approached his bed.

"Harry, you awake?"

Sirius' head appeared around the curtain. Harry nodded, he took this as permission to slip through the red velvet.

"Shift over."

Harry sat up and slid over to make space beside him and Sirius sat down next to him in silence. Harry couldn't think of anything to say. He realised that this was becoming a fairly regular occurrence. Eventually he decided not to bother trying to think of anything. He took Sirius' presence to mean that he wasn't angry and rested his head on his shoulder, half expecting to be shrugged off. Relief washed over him when he felt Sirius' arm slide around his shoulders, holding him tight. His breath was tickling the top of his head.

"This isn't fair."

Harry wrapped his arms around Sirius' waist and squeezed, trying to offer a small piece of comfort.

"I know."

"Can't you just stay?"

Harry smiled at him sadly and shook his head. Sirius sighed and leant backwards heavily against the headrest.

"This really isn't fair."

"Do you still want to stay together?"

Harry prayed that he did, dreading him saying no. He was pretty sure he'd actually stopped breathing. Sirius nodded.

"Yeah. If we only have 3 months left we have to make the most of it, right?"

* * *

A/N: Please review, despite the shortness!


	27. Chapter 27

A/N: ok check out the long chapter people- I feel this one is definitely long enough to make up for the last one.

The sun came out last week and my surgical attachment to this computer seemed to end briefly (reason for the slightly longer update- it was meant to be fast). However, true to tradition in good ol' London it is once again pissing it down so I am updating. Sorry for the delay though…

Chapter 27

Harry woke up the next morning with his head buried in the front of Sirius' t-shirt and a heavy arm draped over him. Sirius was still asleep so Harry curled up against him, smiling as the arm around him subconsciously tightened its grip.

Sirius was still wearing his clothes from the day before and smelled like grass and aftershave and general Sirius smell which Harry was pretty sure was quickly becoming his favourite smell in the world.

A quick glance at his clock told his that it was nearly mid-day which meant that the others would probably have gotten up already, even if it _was_ a Sunday.

He shifted his position so that he could see Sirius' face. He liked looking at him when he was asleep; if Sirius was asleep he couldn't laugh at him for staring. His hair was spread out all over the pillows but somehow it had managed to stay untangled; Harry knew it he ever grew his hair that long it would be a mess but Sirius' hair seemed to stay perfect all the time. Harry wasn't sure if it was natural or if it was due to the amount of time he spent washing it. He decided on a bit of both.

He picked up one piece and wound it around his fingers, playing with it. Sirius' eyes flickered slightly and a small smile spread over his lips.

"Are you awake?"

"Yes and why are you so fascinated with my hair?"

It was true; Harry always seemed to be fiddling with Sirius' hair.

"It's pretty."

Sirius smiled again and opened his eyes.

"You're pretty."

Sirius kissed his forehead and swung his legs over the side of the bed, scrunching up his nose in disgust.

"Ew, remind me never to sleep in jeans again."

Harry laughed sat up next to him, leaning forward and pulling the curtains around the bed open. Light flooded in, making him squint for a second. Sirius sat behind him and rested his chin on his shoulder.

"What do you want to do today?"

"Choices?"

"Anything you want. We could sneak out if you like; go to Hogsmeade or London. Hell we could go to Paris if you want."

Harry grinned.

"London sounds good."

Sirius bounced to his feet and pulled Harry up.

"Get changed then, lots to do."

Harry grabbed the first clothes he found and pulled them on. Sirius put on a new t-shirt and magically cleaned his jeans. Within 15 minutes they were standing by the statue of the one-eyed witch.

They walked down the passageway, rambling about what they were going to do, talking so fast that neither had time to finish their sentences. Harry loved the way Sirius looked when he was excited; his eyes sparkled and his whole face seemed to glow.

"And we could go sightseeing… or shopping! Shopping sounds better, I've never really been into the whole history thing. Ooooh!! We need to get ice-cream. Don't you just really feel like ice-cream right now?"

Harry laughed and squeezed his hand.

"Ice-cream sounds great."

Sometimes he could swear Sirius had the mental age of a five-year-old.

* * *

By the time they got there, Sirius had ice-cream on the brain so Harry decided it was best to get him some first so that he wouldn't spend the rest of the day complaining about how much he wanted it.

The man who sold it to them looked at them strangely which was probably partly because Sirius was jumping up and down on the spot and talking about sprinkles and partly because they were eating ice-cream in the rain.

"It's best to eat it in the cold. Then it doesn't melt as quick."

Sirius licked his ice-cream happily.

"In a strange way, that actually makes sense."

"Of course it makes sense; I said it and I'm a genius."

Harry hit Sirius on the back of the head, almost causing him to drop his ice-cream.

"Hey!"

Sirius seemed to suddenly get over his outrage as he bounced up and down and pointed at something over Harry's shoulder.

"What are you…?"

Sirius grabbed Harry's wrist.

"Come on!"

He dragged him across the road, nearly getting hit by three cars and a bus along the way, and down a flight of stairs before stopping.

"The underground. All that for the underground."

"It's cool! They have trains that go underground! Please please please can we go on one?"

Harry stared at Sirius in disbelief.

"Haven't you ever been on one of these before?"

"No. I was going to when I was up here with James one time but he got scared."

"Of the underground…"

Sirius nodded. Harry shrugged.

"Ok then, where do you want to go?"

Sirius scanned the tube map quickly. Harry noticed that there were quite a few less stations than there were the last time he had been on the underground.

"Let's go to… Mudchute."

"What's in Mudchute?"

Sirius shrugged.

"Dunno but it's a good name. And it's far away so we get to ride the cool train for longer. Goodge Street is a pretty good name too but its only two stops away."

Harry laughed.

"Trust me, it gets boring pretty quickly. How about we go somewhere where there's actually something to do?"

"Ok, but you're going to have to pick somewhere because I don't know where anything is around here. And it has to be at least four stops away."

Harry looked at the map. It would have been easy to find something to do in his own time, he had been around most of London with the other Sirius in the Easter holidays, but most of the things that were there then either weren't there yet or were historical landmark type things and he knew Sirius didn't want to go sightseeing. One of the stations on the map caught his eye. He quickly counted the stations before grabbing Sirius' hand and dragging him towards the sign which said 'Northern Line'.

"Where are we going?"

"Camden Town, six stops."

"What's there?"

"There's a big market and shops and stuff. It's good."

Sirius nodded contently and then squeaked as a train came roaring onto the platform. He rushed on happily as soon as the doors opened. It was mostly empty since it was the middle of the afternoon on a Sunday so he only received a few glares for his squealing. The doors closed and he pressed his nose close to the window as the outside went black.

"This is so cool."

"Nice to know you're so easy to please."

Sirius stuck his tongue out and went back to watching the tunnels fly past the windows. Harry looked around at the almost empty tube. Everyone was either reading a newspaper, looking absently around or nervously checking their watches apart form one old lady whose gaze was fixed firmly and disapprovingly on Harry and Sirius' linked hands.

Harry gently nudged Sirius with his elbow and whispered in his ear.

"I think we have an audience."

He subtly nodded his head in the direction of the woman. Sirius looked at her for a second, momentarily distracted from the wonder that was the London underground, before leaning in to whisper back.

"I bet I can make her leave the carriage."

Harry grinned, taking one last look at the lady over his shoulder.

"Before our stop?"

"Easy."

Sirius placed his hands on Harry's waist and pulled him closer, watching the expression on the woman's face as she watched, and kissed his neck, still keeping one eye focused over his shoulder.

"She's still watching. What an old pervert."

Harry turned his laugh into an exaggerated moan and Sirius kissed his lips, turning around slightly so the woman could see clearly. The woman looked around as if waiting for someone to object but the other people on the carriage didn't even seem to notice. Sirius decided to push it a little further, making sure she could see before sliding his hand under Harry's shirt. The lady shook her head in disgust and got up to stand by the door. When they slid open she left quickly, muttering to herself.

"That was way too easy."

"How do you know she just didn't have to get off there?"

Sirius grinned and pointed through the plastic window between the carriages.

"Because she just got onto that carriage."

Harry laughed as the woman's gaze flickered over to them briefly through the screen before she pointedly looked away.

* * *

"Are you a stoner in the future?"

Harry smirked and raised an eyebrow.

"No, why do you ask?"

Sirius took a bite out of a kebab that he had bought from one of the slightly dodgy looking food stalls.

"Well, since we got here we've been offered drugs three times and you seem to know your way around, therefore I would naturally assume that you spend a lot of time here and following that that you probably do drugs."

"Nah, they just offered us stuff because they think _you_ look like a stoner."

Sirius looked offended.

"I don't."

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's the hair."

Sirius glared.

"You are so not getting anymore of this kebab."

"Good, I'm pretty sure it's got a disease. I can't believe you're eating anything from this place."

In his own time he had tried to avoid the food here but twenty years back it was way worse.

"It tastes ok to me."

They turned a corner and a massive grin spread over Harry's face.

"Come on, I have the best shop to show you."

"Better than the one with the bondage stuff?"

Harry nodded and Sirius followed him gleefully to a shop at the end of the row they were in.

The other Sirius had taken Harry to this shop when they came down here together, insisting that he _had_ to see it because it was his favourite shop in the world. Harry remembered how stunned he had been when he first walked in. Walking through the door again made him feel like nothing had changed since then. Apart from the clothes they were selling the shop had hardly changed at all and even the clothes weren't that different.

Harry couldn't believe it was still there.

Sirius looked around in awe. The shop's light was a dim ultraviolet colour and almost everything in there was neon with bits of netting hanging off them or hoops sewn in to give them strange shapes. Sirius was wearing a white shirt which glowed bright in the purple light. He grinned and ran over to a display of sunglasses which had random pictures in the lenses, picking up a pair with hypnotist's spirals on them.

He ran between all of the displays, getting distracted by something new every time he moved. This was just Sirius' kind of shop: overly loud and bright and crazy.

Sirius disappeared for a couple of seconds before reappearing by Harry's shoulder, poking him repeatedly.

"They have changing rooms! We _have_ to try something on."

Harry laughed.

"Ok, what do you want to try?"

Sirius thought for second.

"I'll pick something for you to try, you pick something for me."

"Ok then."

Sirius ran off happily and Harry yelled after him.

"Not a dress."

"Ok."

"Or a skirt."

"Damn…"

He pouted for a second before running off to find something. Harry grabbed a pair of trousers that Sirius had just been looking at. They were black leather with splatters of yellow paint on them. He though they would probably do since they had enough neon yellow on them and looked pretty tight. Sirius came running back with what looked like a piece of black net with some fluorescent green strings on it. He thrust it into Harry's hands looking pleased. Harry examined it.

"What is it?"

Sirius rolled his eyes.

"It's a top, obviously."

Harry didn't think it was obvious at all.

"Right… how does it work?"

Sirius took it back impatiently.

"Look, you put your head through here and you arms through… actually, maybe your head goes there…"

He turned it round looking puzzled before handing it back to Harry.

"You'll work it out. Come on."

Harry thought that that was very unlikely but he followed Sirius to the changing rooms anyway. The changing rooms were small silver capsules with lots of space-agey buttons and levers painted on the outsides. They disappeared into separate capsules and Harry took another look at the 'top' Sirius had given him.

He tried sticking his head through various different holes before giving up entirely and dropping it on a stool in the corner of the changing room, pulling his own shirt back on.

Harry jumped when a head appeared round his cubicle door.

"Boo."

It was Sirius. That was hardly surprising really; Harry wasn't sure who else he was expecting it to be.

"Oh, it's just you."

"_Just _me? That's nice."

He came inside the room properly so Harry could see his trousers. When he had thought that they looked quite _tight_ before he had clearly not been thinking straight; They were possibly the tightest trousers he had ever seen in his life. Sirius grinned as he saw Harry staring at his legs and came closer.

"You like?"

Harry nodded dumbly, the pants clung so tightly to Sirius that he could see _everything._

"I thought you would."

He pushed Harry down onto the stool and straddled him. He picked up Harry's hands and ran them over the leather.

"Feels good doesn't it?"

Harry just nodded again, his eyes flickering shut as Sirius ground down against him making him harder by the second. When he opened his eyes, Sirius' face was millimetres from his own. He scanned his face, taking in for the millionth time just how hot the man in front of him really was. Then he realised that one of the sexiest guys he had ever met was straddling him and he got even harder than he was before.

Sirius leant even closer and whispered against his lips.

"You know what's hotter than leather pants?"

Harry shook his head, right at that moment he couldn't think of many things.

"Nothing at all."

He finally closed the gap between their lips. Harry opened his mouth straight away, begging for the feel of Sirius' tongue against his own. They pressed together hard, hands tangled in hair and groping under shirts. Harry pulled Sirius further on top of him so that, if there hadn't been a wall behind them, they would have probably fallen on the floor. Harry doubted if even that would have made them stop.

He had no idea what had brought this on but he couldn't have stopped if he tried; he was aching for Sirius, wanting to touch every part of him and as hard as he tried, it just wasn't enough.

He arched his back and moaned as Sirius undid his jeans and rubbed his cock through his boxers. Sirius pulled away, panting, still rubbing him.

"You're so hot when you're all worked up like this. So fucking hot."

Harry caught his lips again breathlessly but Sirius pulled back again. Harry marvelled at how, even now, the guy never seemed to stop talking. Even if it was very broken up.

"Wanna fuck you so bad. You don't know how much I want you…"

His words made Harry involuntarily thrust his hips up into Sirius'. He whimpered.

"Do it then."

Sirius' eyes widened.

"Here?"

Harry nodded, unable to speak, partly because he couldn't quite believe what he had said and partly because he had lost the power of coherent speech a while back.

"You sure?"

"Yeah. Want you…"

Sirius grinned and kissed him again hard, biting his lip and sucking on the metal ring through it as he pulled his jeans off and threw them on the floor. Harry undid the leather pants and removed them too, which was slightly harder due to the tightness but he managed it fairly quickly. Soon they were kissing again. Sirius stood up without breaking the kiss, taking Harry with him.

"Have you ever…?"

Harry shook his head.

"Ok…"

Sirius hesitated slightly before speaking again.

"Turn around."

Harry turned around to face the wall, surprised his legs didn't give out in the process. He held onto the wall to keep himself steady.

"Are you still sure…?"

"Sirius, just do it."

Now that they were closer to actually doing it, Harry was beginning to lose his nerve and the more time Sirius spent talking, the more nervous he became. He had a feeling that Sirius wasn't so confident either since his voice sounded a lot less certain than usual.

"Ok… I need to prepare you first or this is really gonna hurt. Just… relax."

Harry tried to relax but that was difficult when relaxed was about as far from how he was feeling as possible.

He felt Sirius slide one finger into him. It was the weirdest feeling in the world. It didn't hurt but it felt incredibly awkward and wrong. Harry wanted to stop and go back to kissing again but it was too late now.

Sirius added another finger, this time it hurt a bit but the pain went pretty quickly, it was when he added the third that it started to really hurt. Harry bit his lip but didn't say anything. Sirius noticed.

"You alright?"

He nodded, lying. The pain went down but didn't completely go away. Sirius scissored his fingers, stretching him, for a while before he pulled out. Harry suddenly felt very empty.

"Ready?"

Harry nodded again, wondering why he didn't just open his mouth and say no. There was no way he was ready for this.

Sirius buried his face in Harry's neck and kissed the skin there as he pushed in.

The pain was horrific. Harry felt like he was being torn in half. He bit down on his tongue so hard to stop himself from screaming that he tasted blood in his mouth. If he didn't count the cruciatus curse, this was easily the worst pain he'd been in in his life and as the seconds passed without the pain subsiding he began to think that this might almost be worse than that.

Sirius watched his face until the look of pain had calmed.

"Ok?"

Harry nodded, even though he was far from ok, and Sirius took this as permission to move, thrusting in and out, slowly at first then faster. Any of the pain that had gone away came back full force whenever Sirius moved and Harry clenched his fists, his knuckles going white, and gritted his teeth to stop himself from crying from the pain. Then he felt Sirius hit something inside him which paralysed him completely, making his eyes roll back in his head and his knees buckle. For a second the pain went away and all he could feel was pleasure, but then it came back. Sirius hit that spot a couple more times but when he didn't it hurt so badly. Harry was relieved when he felt Sirius come and lean against him, breathing heavily. He felt a hand wrap around his own cock, pumping on it until he reached his own release. Sirius kissed his neck and his shoulders over and over and Harry began to feel a bit better but the pain was still there when he moved.

Sirius muttered a cleaning spell and they both pulled on their trousers again.

"I've got to go change out of these. See you in a minute."

Sirius kissed Harry one more time before disappearing out of the door to his own changing room. Harry collapsed on the stool for a couple of minutes before attempting to move. Sirius' head appeared around the door again.

"Hey, you staying in there all day?"

"I can't walk. You have crippled me for life."

I was a joke, sort of, but Sirius bit his lip worriedly and crossed the room to where he was sitting.

"Shit, did it really hurt that much?"

Harry shook his head. He couldn't stand seeing Sirius look so worried.

"No, just a bit. It will go away soon."

Sirius seemed to calm down but Harry had a feeling he didn't quite believe him since he insisted on supporting him when he walked. They rode on the tube for a bit longer before heading back to Hogwarts, since it was getting dark. When they got back to the dorm Harry collapsed on his bed, exhausted, and it finally dawned on him that he and Sirius had had sex.

No matter how much it had hurt, that thought made him smile.

* * *

A/N: Please review! It makes me update quicker.


	28. Chapter 28

A/N: Another shortish one where not a lot happens but its ok because the next one is nearly done.

Thanks a bunch to the people who reviewed the last chapter, especially the ones who have been reading this since it started (which I feel was a ridiculously long time ago)- you guys are all awesome.

Chapter 28

"Siri, you coming out?"

Sirius shook his head vaguely, not really seeming to hear Harry.

"In a minute."

Harry frowned; this was something that had happened quite a lot over the last few days. Sirius always seemed to be thinking about something and Harry just couldn't work out what. Just when he began to think that Sirius was going off him he would turn around and give him that dazzling smile of his and wipe the thought from his mind completely.

Still, it would be nice if he would either tell him what he was so absorbed with or stop being so distant.

With anyone else it wouldn't be that strange but Sirius never thought about things. He just didn't do it.

He shrugged and headed outside by himself. James and Lily were off somewhere together and Remus was with Peter so he went and found somewhere to sit and watched little people zoom around on brooms on the distant Quidditch pitch trying to persuade himself that he wasn't thinking bout Sirius and his thinking because that would be sad and obsessive.

Time has a habit of speeding up just when you wish it would stop completely and before Harry had even realised it a week had passed, then two, then a month. He hadn't done anything in particular for that whole time, just lazed around enjoying spending time with his friends and his boyfriend, gone to lessons and done homework and occasionally gone to Hogsmeade.

It was the beginning of April and a gnawing panic had started in his gut.

He had less than two months to fit in everything that he wanted to do with Sirius, two months to make meaningful and special. How could he possibly fit a lifetime's worth of things into two months? It just couldn't be done.

The worst thing was that Sirius didn't seem to be worried at all. It was as if he had completely forgotten that Harry had so little time left and he was perfectly content to just sit around and talk, when he wasn't doing this strange thinking thing he had taken to recently of course.

It wasn't that Harry didn't enjoy that, he did; especially now it was sunny and they could go outside and mess around out there. Being with Sirius was great and being with all of the Marauders was fun but he couldn't help feeling that they should be doing something more important, more meaningful. Problem was: he had no idea what.

"Hey Hazza."

Sirius flopped onto the grass beside Harry and kissed him on the cheek. Harry raised an eyebrow.

"Hazza?"

"You don't like it?"

"No."

"Good, I think I'll keep it."

Harry punched Sirius in the shoulder.

"Ow! Don't abuse the beautiful people."

Harry rolled his eyes.

"Ok, you don't like Hazza. How about… Hairy Harry?"

"No."

"Happy Harry?"

"No."

"Tim?"

"No."

"No? I thought for sure you'd like that."

Harry laughed and looked back to the Quidditch pitch. He had been watching the Ravenclaw team practicing until Sirius had arrived.

About a week before they had found a hill with a great view of the Quidditch pitch, the lake and, if you climbed one of the trees around, pretty much any other part of the grounds. They had been spending a lot of time up there talking, messing around and trying and failing to climb the trees.

Harry liked watching the Quidditch, he didn't play in this time and he was really missing it.

"How about Harry Jalapeño?"

"You still on that?"

"Yeah, you like that one?"

"No, I think I'll stick with Harry thanks."

"Aw that's no fun."

Sirius pretended to sulk but gave up after about two minutes when he realised that Harry wasn't paying attention.

"Fine, Harry it is then but when you get bored of it just remember that I was rooting for Tim."

"Sure."

"You know, a part of me is very insulted that you are more interested in the Ravenclaw Quidditch practice that my stimulating conversation. They're not even good!"

Harry smirked as one of the Ravenclaw chasers dove for the quaffle, catching it about a metre from the ground. Sirius flinched.

"Ok, maybe they're alright. But we are still going to destroy them Saturday."

"So long as Jack doesn't try and do that weird curly save thing again. What was with that?"

"We will still destroy them even if Jack does do that curly thing because we are FAR superior in every way."

"Sure you are."

As Harry sat arguing with Sirius about Quidditch on their hill he realised they didn't need to do anything else to make the rest of their time significant. Sirius made it special by just being his uniquely crazy self.

* * *

A/N: Review please!! I'll make you cake =D


	29. Chapter 29

A/N: Chapter 29, which is almost chapter 30, which is a big number. This just keeps going ooon doesn't it.

And it's longer! It's not a book granted but it's a good 1,800 and something words which I feel is decent. Am going to try and post a bit quicker (I know I keep saying that but I do mean it) because I don't want this to drag too much.

And yes, I do realise I'm just talking for the sake of talking (or writing as it were) but I don't seem to be able to stop. Sorry about that.

Chapter 29

"Remus, you seen Sirius?"

"Nope, sorry mate."

"Ok, thanks."

Harry leant against the banister and wracked his brain for another idea as to where his boyfriend might have gone; he was pretty sure he'd looked everywhere already. He'd disappeared that morning, snapping out of one of his strange thoughtful moments long enough to murmur that he needed to go get something and run out of the Great Hall. Since then Harry hadn't seen him once and he would have been lying if he'd said that Sirius' recent distant behaviour wasn't starting to bother him a bit. He was meant to meet him about two hours before and there had been no sign of him.

"Peter!"

Wormtail turned around and smiled when he saw Harry.

"Hey."

"You seen Sirius?"

"Yeah, he ran into me a couple of minutes ago. Seemed like he was in a hurry."

"Weird, which way did he go?"

Peter shrugged.

"Upstairs so… maybe the common room or something. I'm not sure, sorry."

Harry nodded.

"Ok thanks."

Harry walked up the stairs to search the upper floors again briefly wondering why he was even bothering when he knew that if he found Sirius he would probably only spend about 2 minutes with him before going all weird on him again.

After looking for another half hour he decided to give up and headed outside to the hill. He watched one of the Quidditch teams practicing and made a mental promise to make Sirius beg a lot and explain where he had been before forgiving him for this one.

"Go on then, who killed your pet hamster?"

Lily sat on the grass next to him.

"What?"

"When I was a kid I accidentally trod on my sister's pet hamster and she gave me death glares for weeks so now whenever I see someone looking pissed off I remember that. Who was it?"

"No one, I'm fine."

"Sirius then."

Harry didn't say anything and carried on watching the Quidditch, hoping that if he didn't reply she would drop it. No such luck.

"What did he do? I mean, I know he's generally an idiot but that doesn't normally bother you."

Harry sighed.

"He was supposed to meet me over two hours ago after he'd gone and got whatever it was he needed to get which he wouldn't tell me about but he didn't turn up and I can't find him anywhere. Plus he's been acting really weird lately, apart from lessons I'm pretty sure we spend about 10 minutes a day together without him drifting off thinking about something which he also won't tell me about."

"Yeah I noticed him thinking a lot too. Only because it's so weird that he thinks at all. If it's any comfort at all: if James arranged to meet me and didn't turn up I wouldn't talk to him for at least a week."

Harry gave a half-smile, it did make him feel a bit better that she didn't think he was being stupid.

"You never know, he might have a good excuse for it."

Harry nodded, thinking to himself that it probably wouldn't make a difference if Sirius had an excuse or not; he would most likely forgive him in about 5 seconds due to the fact he was completely whipped.

The Quidditch practice ended and Lily and Harry both made their way up to the castle, deciding that there had to be something in there more fun to do than sitting on a hill with nothing to watch. When they arrived in the common room James, Remus and Peter were sitting on the couch talking. James looked half-amused, half irritated and Peter just looked bewildered. Remus had the same all-knowing expression he always had. He spotted Harry and Lily and grinned.

"Ah, Harry, you're back."

James noticed them.

"Finally. Lily!"

He grabbed Lily and dragged her onto his lap before looking back to Harry.

"You, my friend, are wanted in the dorm."

Harry looked at him questioningly. Remus explained.

"Sirius told us to send you up there when you turned up."

"And banned us from going up there until tonight. Whatever it is better be good cos I left my wand up there and I don't like this whole having to get up to fetch things thing."

He looked back at Remus who just shrugged. Lily rolled her eyes.

"You are so lazy. Harry, go up and see Sirius and if he doesn't have a decent excuse for earlier kick him hard."

Harry laughed.

"Ok, will do. I guess I'll see you guys in a bit then."

He headed up the stairs to the dorm feeling thoroughly confused and pushed open the door.

"Sirius? Wh…?"

He trailed off when he saw the room. The lights were off and the room was lit dimly by what looked like hundreds of candles. He heard the door close behind him.

"What…?"

Sirius wrapped his arms around Harry's waist from behind and rested his chin on his shoulder.

"Ok I'm stumped, what's with the candles?"

Sirius laughed softly.

"You remember that time in London? When we had sex?"

Harry nodded, biting back a sarcastic 'no, I'd completely forgotten'. They hadn't done anything like that since then which Harry was slightly grateful for, remembering how much it had hurt.

"I liked it; I know that, it was amazing for me. What about you?"

Harry shrugged.

"It hurt a bit."

"A bit?"

Harry decided to be honest.

"Ok, a lot."

"See, that's what I thought. I also thought that, although sex in a public changing room in undeniably hot, it wasn't how I wanted to be with you for the first time."

He kissed the side of Harry's neck gently.

"I wanted to do the whole soppy romantic gesture thing because this means so much more to me with you than it ever has before and I've been thinking about it a lot but this was the best I could come up with. I know it's stupidly cringe."

Harry felt a wave of fear go though him. Sure he'd thought about having sex with Sirius again, to be honest he was pretty sure he'd dreamt about it a few times that week but that was altogether different from actually doing it. Dream sex didn't involve any pain at all.

"Siri, I don't know if I can…"

Sirius shushed him gently.

"We don't have to if you don't want to. This was just so that you would know…"

Harry shifted nervously.

"I wouldn't hurt you this time. We could go really slow, like we should have done the first time."

Sirius was nuzzling into his neck with his nose. It tickled and it made Harry smile and just want to hug his boyfriend tight because he could be so sweet sometimes.

"So what do you think?"

Harry hesitated slightly before nodding.

"Yeah I want to."

After all, people wouldn't keep doing this if there wasn't something good about it, right?

Sirius beamed and kissed his neck again and along his jaw before finding his lips.

"I'll make you feel so good. I promise I will."

Sirius spun him round and pushed him backwards, slowly, towards his bed. The two landed on it with a soft 'thump' and lay there kissing for ages. Sometimes Sirius would abandon Harry's mouth in favour of kissing his face or neck or along his collar bone but he would always return to taste his lips. They seemed to stay there, just kissing, for ages and Harry felt his fears temporarily melt away as he enjoyed the feel of Sirius tongue massaging his own; he hadn't been this close to him in days, since he had started with his strange thinking, and the time without it made it seem even more amazing.

Sirius' hands were under Harry's shirt and he shivered as they brushed over sensitive skin above his trousers. He pulled Sirius closer, breathing in deeply and smelling him. Sirius gently pulled Harry's top off over his head. Harry shivered again slightly from the sudden cold but he removed Sirius shirt too and with his skin next to him he felt warm again. Harry briefly wondered why people felt so much warmer when they had no clothes on.

Sirius kissed down his chest and down, swirling his tongue around his nipples and briefly over his belly button which was strangely ticklish, and rubbed his already hard cock through his jeans, smirking at the satisfied moans he received. It wasn't until he undid Harry's jeans and pulled them off that Harry began to get nervous again. Sirius seemed to sense it and went back to kissing his lips.

"You alright?"

Harry nodded. He seemed to have lost his voice.

Sirius kissed him again gently.

"It'll be ok, trust me."

Harry nodded again and Sirius removed his own trousers so that they were both down to their underwear.

Sirius stroked his arm softly and kissed him as he shifted their position.

"You ready?"

"Yes."

"You sure?"

"Yes."

"Are you absolutely completely positive cos…"

"Sirius get on with it!"

Sirius snorted with laughter. Harry had to agree that the whole situation was pretty funny but he had a feeling that stopping to laugh about it would only serve to make him even more panicky than he already was so he pulled Sirius towards him and kissed him forcefully. Sirius' laughter stopped entirely and changed into moans before he forced himself to pull back.

"Ok, I get your point. Relax ok? This is gonna hurt a bit at first."

_Oh thanks for the warning._

Harry nodded, biting down on his tongue as Sirius positioned himself. He realised the stupidity of this particular action as soon as he felt Sirius push into him as the pain caused him to bite down hard.

"Are you ok?"

"Hurts."

Sirius rubbed soothing circles on his lower back and gradually the pain started to subside. It was still uncomfortable but it didn't hurt anymore. Harry took a deep breath in and nodded.

"I'm ok now."

Sirius moved, straight away finding that spot that Harry remembered form the last time, the one that made him seize up in pleasure. Only, this time, he hit it almost every time, reducing Harry to a moaning wreck wondering how he could have possibly not enjoyed this before. In no time at all they both came and collapsed in a heap on the bed. Sirius struggled to get words out as he regained his breath.

"Wow."

Harry nodded in agreement.

"Better that time?"

"Definitely."

Sirius grinned and wrapped his arms around Harry pulling him close. Harry buried his head in Sirius' chest and breathed him in and Sirius laughed gently at him.

"Love you."

Harry's head snapped up, almost crashing into Sirius' jaw on the way which just made Sirius laugh more. He was so beautiful when he was laughing. Or smiling… or frowning, or sleeping, or pulling stupid faces. Just in general really.

"Love you too."

* * *

A/N: Like it? Hate it? Review!! Please? It would make me really happy =)


	30. Chapter 30

A/N: This is really 2 chapters jammed together but I felt the first one was waaay too short.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter- you are all stars.

Chapter 30

"I can't believe you lot aren't more worried. It's less than a month until our NEWTs and you're not even revising!"

Sometimes it scared Harry just how much Lily reminded him of Hermione.

Remus looked up from the book he was reading indignantly.

"Ok maybe _you_ are but I know James hasn't so much as opened a book and I'm pretty sure Harry and Sirius haven't either.

"But Liiiillls, they're a whole month away!"

She threw a withering look at James who sulkily picked up a book from the floor next to him on a subject he wasn't even taking and pretended to read it. Sirius stood up and grabbed Harry's hand to pull him up too.

"Aren't you two even slightly worried?"

Sirius seemed to think for a second.

"Nope."

Harry definitely wasn't nervous since he would be gone before the exams anyway. Sometimes he worried that Sirius was going to fail his NEWTs because of him but Sirius didn't seem especially worried so Harry had stopped thinking about it.

They walked outside in comfortable silence, Sirius kicking a pebble along the path in front of them, until they found a good spot where they sat down.

Harry could feel the warmth radiating off Sirius as he sat next to him. He knew it was stupid but sometimes he felt like he could feel a part of Sirius leaking out into him and joining them together. He knew it was crazy but he liked the thought, it meant that they would stay joined together, even when he was gone.

Every now and then Harry thought that he was getting incredibly mushy. But then he reasoned that it was probably ok to be sometimes.

If he thought he had been obsessed with Sirius when they first got together, that was nothing to how he felt now. Every time he thought he was finally stopping acting like a complete girl, Sirius would do or say something sweet or funny or just smile at him and he would be reduced to mush. He had gotten good at hiding it but he had a feeling Sirius knew anyway.

He didn't really care.

"Do you believe in fate?"

"Huh?"

Harry snapped out of his Sirius filled day dreams and turned to look at the other boy.

"You know- fate, like destiny and all that."

Harry though about it for a bit. He had never believed any of that stuff when Professor Trelawny had gone on about it but that was more fortune telling and Dumbledore always seemed to think that it was fate that he would defeat Voldemort… In the end he settled for shrugging.

"I'm not sure, why?"

"I do. I just decided."

Harry nodded.

"Ok, why's that?"

"Promise not to laugh?"

Harry knew Sirius didn't really care if he laughed, he had way too much self-confidence for that, but he agreed not to anyway.

"Ok, well I figure that you coming here was like fate because you're so perfect and I love you so much and it can't just be coincidence that you landed here right? And I think if it's really fate then we have to see each some other time after you've gone or you might have to stay or something because it would kind of be a waste of all the extra effort by fate if you just left and I never saw you again."

Harry was torn between just wanting to hug his boyfriend for being so sweet and feeling incredibly guilty because he would see Sirius again and he knew that but he wasn't telling. He decided on bringing their lips together softly and smiling at Sirius who smiled back somewhat sadly. Harry decided he did believe in fate, even if fate's sole purpose was to make his life difficult.

* * *

"Sirius, shut up."

"Aaaww you're no fun Lil's. Prongsie'll be fun won't you mate?"

James was half way through nodding his agreement when Lily sent a death glare his way which silenced him.

"No Sirius, he needs to revise, you should too."

Sirius crossed his legs and leant back against the tree sulking. Harry had to laugh; he looked like a five-year-old.

"Come on Sirius, I'll do something with you."

Sirius' face lit up and he jumped to his feet, grabbing Harry's hand.

"Awesome! You're my favourite one anyway."

He stuck his tongue out at Lily and James. Lily scowled in a truly fearsome manner and James tried his best to look apologetic without Lily noticing.

"Harry, don't let him drag you down with him. You need to revise."

"I'll be fine Lils, don't worry."

Sirius dragged him away before Lily had a chance to reply. He scanned the surrounding area quickly before grinning and hauling Harry over to a steep hill.

"Ever played rolling races before?"

"Erm… no."

"Ok well it's really simple. You start at the top and roll down the hill until you get to the bottom. First one there wins."

It was simple, especially since Sirius' games were normally pretty complicated; his favourite game was really making up hugely complex games and laughing when no one else could remember the rules.

They played five rounds of rolling down and running up again laughing. Sirius won all of them. When they were tired out from giggling and being generally childish they lay at the top of the hill.

"Way more fun than revising."

Harry nodded his agreement. Then suddenly he felt Sirius' arms close around him and pull him close. Sirius laughed as he rolled down the hill, keeping his hold on Harry as he went so that they rolled like a laughing, screaming log. They separated at the bottom, Sirius laughing so hard he couldn't breathe properly and Harry holding his sides and giggling manically. Their hysterics were cut short by a small voice from above them.

"Urm, excuse me, are you Harry James?"

Harry rolled over and looked up at the small boy standing, looking down on him.

"That's me."

"Dumbledore told me to send you up to his office."

"Ok, thanks."

The kid nodded and hurried off to find his friends. Harry hauled himself to his feet only to get dragged back again by Sirius who had stopped laughing completely and now looked nothing short of panicked.

"Don't go."

Harry laughed.

"I have to, I'll see you later."

"What if you don't?"

"Siri, we live in the same room- of course I'm going to see you."

Sirius bit his lip nervously.

"What if he sends you back?"

Harry's stomach sank to his toes.

"He won't."

"Harry, I'm not an idiot. It's the end of May; if he wants to see you it means either the potion's finished or he got it wrong and he can't send you back yet. Considering it's Dumbledore I'd say that latter isn't likely."

Sirius looked completely depressed, all the laughter from a few moments before had completely disappeared from his eyes and he looked more like he was going to cry than anything else. Harry reached out and brushed his cheek with his fingertips and Sirius caught his hand, holding it in both of his own.

"I will see you later, I promise. I'm not going to leave without saying goodbye."

He leant in and kissed his boyfriend, trying to memorise his taste and smell just in case Sirius was right and they really didn't have another chance. Sirius pushed him down on the grass underneath him, pressing his body between his own and the warm ground. Harry forced himself to pull away; he knew if he didn't he would never go and see Dumbledore. He kissed Sirius one more time on the cheek and slid out form underneath him.

"I'll see you later."

Sirius waved sadly and Harry started the walk up to the headmaster's office.

* * *

Dumbledore was waiting for Harry when he reached his office. He was sitting behind his desk with his fingers laced together and on the table in front of him was a small vial of some multicoloured liquid. It seemed to change colour every time the light hit it. Harry would've thought it was pretty if drinking it didn't mean he would be separated from Sirius and all his new friends.

"Ah Harry! Please, sit."

Harry sat down as he was told to but he couldn't help fidgeting around in his seat.

"As you can see, the potion is now finished. I'm sure you're looking forward to going home."

"Professor, I need to… I can't go yet. Not before I say goodbye."

Dumbledore chuckled to himself.

"Of course not my dear boy that would be horribly impolite. I suggest that you meet me back here at 11am tomorrow, having said your goodbyes."

"Thank you sir."

Harry was grateful for the extra time, leaving tomorrow was definitely better than leaving right this minute but still… in less than 24 hours he would be gone, back to his own time, where he belonged. It didn't seem very long after spending nearly a year in this time.

He left Dumbledore's office with the intention of going straight back to Gryffindor Tower- he knew the others would be back there by now- but an hour later he found himself wandering aimlessly around the grounds by himself.

He knew he should get back, it was getting dark and he only had a really short time left so why spend it alone? Not to mention he knew that Sirius would be beginning to think he wasn't coming back by now.

For some reason, he didn't know why, he decided to stay out a little longer, until he was sitting on the grass in the pitch darkness. He was half way through counting the millions of stars when it dawned on him that he had roughly 12 hours left here and he was sitting out on his own. He jumped to his feet and ran almost the whole way to Gryffindor Tower.

* * *

Strangely, the common room was pretty much deserted by the time he got there. There were just a few third years huddled on one of the chairs so he went up to the boy's dorm which was already dark and filled with soft breathing. He crossed the room to Sirius' bed and stuck his head round the curtain. Sirius jumped and looked surprised.

"Harry… I thought…"

"I told you I'd be back didn't I?"

He tried to sound cheery but his voice just sounded strained.

"How long?"

"Tomorrow morning. 11 o'clock."

"Shit…"

"Yeah."

Sirius stared blankly at the curtain for a while before shifting over and making room for Harry next to him and wrapping an arm tightly around Harry's shoulders. They sat in silence for a few moments, just staring at the curtain with identical miserable looks on their faces.

"Ironic how we never run out of things to say but when we only have a few hours to fit everything in we can't think of anything to say at all huh?"

Harry laughed weakly and nuzzled into Sirius' neck, breathing in the smell he'd gotten so used to.

"I still can't believe you're going. Like, this time tomorrow I'll be here by myself and your bed's gonna be empty."

This time tomorrow…

This time tomorrow for Harry would be 20 years in the future. He would either be in bed in the place that had been his home nearly a year ago or he would be doing something with the other Sirius and Remus. The thought of the Sirius who was his Godfather in the future made his stomach contract. He missed him so much but he knew that he was facing a very awkward time ahead. He knew Sirius probably didn't remember or connect Harry to his old boyfriend in his own time but that wouldn't stop Harry remembering every time he looked at him. How could he possibly act the same? He knew he was going to have to try.

Harry and Sirius lay awake for most of the rest of the night, alternating between talking and slow kisses and just lying together and staring at each other, trying to remember every detail. A small part of Harry felt that they should probably be talking about hugely meaningful things or having mad sex but neither of them felt like doing anything but being close and memorising each others' faces, smells and the way their voices sounded as if somehow, remembering it would stop them going away.

They fell asleep as the first light starting coming through the curtains.

* * *

A/N: Review and you get cookies! only really virtual ones but sometimes they are just as good.


	31. Chapter 31

A/N: 31- we're getting into the big numbers now and not so long to go until the end.

hope you guys are still enjoying it.

Chapter 31

Harry was woken up the next morning by a pillow which hit him in the face.

"Hey!"

He turned round over to see James standing next to the bed smirking at him and Sirius.

"Sorry about that, lessons to go to."

He didn't look very sorry at all. Harry looked at the clock, it was 8 o'clock. He shook Sirius awake.

"Five more minutes."

"No, you need to get up, you have lessons."

James looked momentarily confused at Harry's use of the word 'you'. Sirius grumbled a bit more before his eyes snapped open and he sat up suddenly.

"What time is it?"

"8."

He shook his head.

"I'm not going; I'm staying here with you until you go."

James looked even more confused and Harry realised he hadn't told him that he was leaving.

"I er… have to go home. Something came up."

"Oh… when you coming back?"

"I'm not."

Remus emerged from the bathroom and heard the last bit of the conversation.

"Wait, you're going? Now?"

"At 11."

"Well thanks for telling!"

Harry looked sheepish. He had completely forgotten about telling anyone other than Sirius. Remus looked awful; all the colour had completely drained out of his face. Harry tried to smile at him apologetically but his facial muscles couldn't quite manage a smile.

James ran a hand through his hair as he digested the news.

"Well… that kind of sucks. Actually it sucks quite a lot but it's not so bad, I mean we can all write and you'll be back in England sometime right? Just because you're not at Hogwarts doesn't mean we won't see you."

He looked hopeful and Harry could hardly explain that on, he would never see them again so he just nodded and smiled.

"Yeah, sure."

Remus was staring at his feet. When he looked up Harry could see him fighting tears.

"We'll miss you."

"I'll miss you too."

He waited until James had disappeared into the bathroom before grabbing Remus in a hug.

"I'm so sorry I didn't tell you, I was just so distracted and… I'm just really sorry."

Remus gripped him tightly.

"It's fine. I just wish you weren't going. I'm gonna miss you like hell."

He pulled back so he could look at Harry but kept a grip on his shoulders.

"Look after yourself ok? And try not to forget us."

Harry laughed.

"Ok mum and don't be stupid, I couldn't forget you guys."

They separated just as James came out of the bathroom.

"Ok, well we have to go to breakfast; I'm assuming Sirius is staying until you've gone?"

Sirius just nodded silently.

"Ok. Well bye then."

James pulled Harry into a hug too but this one was slightly less emotional due to the fact that he had no idea that he was never going to see Harry again.

"We'll miss you mate. Come back soon as you can yeah?"

Harry smiled and agreed and James and Remus left, the latter looking sadly over his shoulder as he walked out of the door. Harry took a deep breath before turning round and going back to where Sirius was sitting on his bed.

He sat next to Sirius and took his hand. His boyfriend didn't say anything but he squeezed his hand so tigh, Harry was pretty sure it was going to break. After just a few minutes the door opened again and Lily came crashing in.

"James just told me you're leaving?!"

"Yeah, in a few hours."

"But… why?"

"Something came up at home, it's complicated."

"And you're not coming back?"

Harry shook his head and Lily's eyes widened. She didn't say anything for a second before she came to a decision.

"Well sorry but that doesn't work for me. I'm going to have to lock you in a cupboard and keep you here."

"I like that plan."

Harry turned round. Other than asking the time that was the first thing Sirius had said all morning. He smiled sympathetically at both of them.

"I like it too but it wouldn't work."

Sirius was on a roll now; he never seemed to stop talking once he had started.

"And why the hell not? We can tell everyone you ran away or got eaten or something and keep you in a cupboard until graduation. We'd make it comfy and feed you and stuff."

"I agree with Sirius; it's a perfectly good plan. Apart from the being eaten part- that was awful."

"I mean it wouldn't work because I have to go. I don't really want to but I kind of have to."

Lily sighed.

"I guess. You can't blame us for trying though right?"

Harry smiled as she too hugged him. As he held her he couldn't help remembering that in his own time, the time he was about to go back to, she'd have been dead for 16 years.

She pulled back and smiled tearily; telling him she'd miss him and making him promise that they'd see him again soon before leaving him and Sirius alone.

"You know, I really think that plan was alright. I mean…"

Harry cut him off.

"Siri, please don't make this harder than it already is."

Sirius sighed and looked at his hands. He looked so dejected that Harry almost apologised and asked him which cupboard would be best but fortunately, Sirius spoke first.

"I'm sorry. Just… I don't want you to go."

"I know."

Sirius pulled him over by the waist so that he could hug him close. Harry buried his head in Sirius' t-shirt. Then suddenly Sirius seemed to remember something and pulled away, rooting around in his cupboard for something. He dug around in all of his clothes for a while before he pulled something out with a triumphant look and hid it behind his back. He pulled Harry over to his bed by his hand and sat next to him.

"Ok I got you something."

Harry looked confused. How had Sirius got him something when he only found out he was going today last night?

"O…k…"

Sirius pulled something which looked a lot like a shiny rock out from behind his back and handed it to Harry who looked at it carefully, trying to work out what it was. He came up blank. It was very pretty though.

"Wow, thanks… What is it?"

"Well, thing is, I don't really know."

Harry raised an eyebrow, waiting for Sirius to elaborate.

"Right…"

"It's from the divination room. Professor Seemore, you know the one with the glasses and the funny robes? Well anyway, she always used to say it was a bit of a star but I was always pretty sure it was just a shiny rock; she's a bit of a phoney really."

Harry laughed.

"It's the prettiest shiny rock I've ever seen."

"See, that's what I thought too. Figured it didn't matter so much what it was because it's still kind of special if you look at it."

Harry looked at the lump of rock in his hand. It glittered all over, a million different colours depending on how he held it and it glowed. It seemed to have its own light. It really was beautiful.

"I love it, thanks."

He leant over and kissed Sirius. Sirius only kissed back for a couple of seconds before pulling away.

"You have to keep it with you, when you go back, to remember."

"Sirius, I'm not going to forget."

"You say that but I'm going to be here and you're going back and you'll see all the people you've been away from. You'll get excited and forget. But if you keep that you might remember. Even if it's only sometimes, when you see it."

Harry groaned inwardly. He wished Sirius could understand just how impossible it was going to be for him to forget about him.

"Look at me."

Sirius was looking down at his hands again and twiddling his fingers around nervously. Harry couldn't see his face through the sheet of black hair.

"Sirius."

This time he did look up and Harry could see his eyes glittering. It was weird how he never got used to how beautiful Sirius was.

"I'm not going to forget. I love you."

"Love you too. So fucking much."

Harry tried to smile but all he could manage was a kind of tearful half-smile so he wrapped his arms around Sirius' waist and buried his head in his neck. Sirius kissed the top of his head and hugged him back. Harry looked up so that their lips met again and this time Sirius didn't pull away.

He ran his hand up and down Harry's back under his shirt and it made Harry shiver and lean in closer until there was no air between them. The kiss was soft and sweet and perfect and it made Harry want to cry. Maybe he already was. He could feel wetness on his cheek but he wasn't sure if that was him or Sirius. It didn't really matter anymore; their bodies were pressed so close together it was as if they were joined. Sirius pulled his head back a bit and kissed Harry's nose and his close eyes as if he was trying to remember his face with his lips. When Harry opened his eyes he could see the tears on his face.

"I'll miss you."

"Then don't go. Please."

"I have to. You know that."

Sirius nodded sadly and kissed him one more time before pulling away. Harry glanced at the clock. It read 10:55.

"I should go now."

He said it without making any move to stand up and leave.

"I'm coming with you."

After procrastinating a little while longer, they stood up and started the journey to Dumbledore's office.

Harry's mouth was dry and he could feel his eyes prickling again. With every step they took he felt like bolting straight back to Gryffindor Tower and trying out Lily's cupboard idea but he just gripped Sirius' hand a little tighter and kept walking and in no time at all they were there.

They climbed the stairs in silence and soon they were face to face with Dumbledore's door. Harry glanced at Sirius quickly before knocking, noticing how stress seemed to make his normally perfect hair messier.

"Come in."

Harry reached for the door handle but at the last second Sirius grabbed his hand and spun him round to face him. He pushed him back against the door and kissed him, hard and desperate; winding his arms around Harry's back and holding him so tight he could barely breathe. Harry pressed against him, kissing back just as hard, tangling his fingers in Sirius' hair.

"Is anyone there?"

Sirius pulled back at the sound of Dumbledore's voice.

"I just… last chance, you know? Couldn't really do that in front of Dumbledore could I?"

Harry gave a half-laugh and kissed Sirius gently one more time, resisting the very strong urge to continue their previous make-out session, before turning the door handle.

"Ah , Harry. Very good. I have everything prepared if you're ready?"

Harry nodded and squeezed Sirius' hand. He couldn't make his mouth form words. He walked towards the small bottle which Dumbledore was pointing to on the desk.

"I just drink it?"

"Yes, it should send you back to the moment you were sent here."

Harry stared at the bottle. It was the same one he'd seen the day before, about the size of a thimble. He looked up at Sirius who was looking at the ground. His hair covered most of his face.

He crossed the room and hugged Sirius tightly, looking at him for one last time.

"I gonna miss you."

"Love you."

He brought the bottle to his lips and as he drank the liquid he felt Sirius disappear from his arms. The office had evaporated and he was spinning in blackness. Then he passed out.

* * *

A/N: Aannnd he's gone... review!


	32. Chapter 32

A/N: Speedy update. Proud of me? I'm proud of me =)

But then I guess it really depends if what's in the chapter is worth reading really doesn't it?

Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter. You are all legends!

Chapter 32

When he woke up he was alone in an alley, slumped against a stone wall. His head felt like it had been hit with six bludgers simultaneously. He didn't know if he was in the right time or the right alley and he didn't really care; he just wanted to be where he had been a few minutes ago, or 20 years ago.

It was too confusing for his head to take.

He sighed and levered himself up and walked down the alley, keeping a hand on the wall to steady himself.

The town was full of people. The market was still on and the noises and bright colours felt surreal. Harry walked through it all in a daze, the voices of the vendors bouncing off him. After a few minutes he arrived on his street and, sure enough, there was his house. That was something at least.

He walked up the steps to the front door and turned the door knob. The protective spells on the house recognised him and the door swung open. He decided to go up to his room and sleep off his headache for a while before he tried to get used to being back.

As he walked past the kitchen he heard a voice behind him.

"That you Harry?"

He spun around and saw Sirius' head poking out of the kitchen door.

"There you are. Did you have breakfast before you went out? Cos I made bacon if you want any."

Harry looked at his Godfather. He knew it must seem weird that he was staring but he couldn't make himself look away. He didn't look _exactly_ the same as he had when he was a teenager but he was pretty close. His eyes still glittered in the same way and he still had the same smile and creepily perfect hair. Harry dragged his gaze away.

"Um… no thanks. I'm just going to have a shower or something."

Sirius shrugged. As Harry reached the bottom of the stairs he heard his voice again.

"Hey Harry?"

"Yeah."

"Sorry if I seemed a bit weird last night, stuff on my mind you know?"

Harry couldn't really remember it so he just smiled.

"S'ok, see you later."

"Yeah, later."

Sirius disappeared back into the kitchen and Harry retreated into the bathroom. He closed the door and leant against it, looking around. The room looked exactly the same as when he had last been there. Well why wouldn't it? He'd only been in there a few hours earlier. He decided to have a very long shower.

He took off his shirt and dropped them on the floor along with his jeans but that was as far as he got. His jeans made a strange clunking sound when they hit the floor. He picked them up and reached his hand into the pocket, pulling out a strange sparkling stone. He smiled as a picture of the younger Sirius swam into his head.

He put his clothes back on, deciding against the shower, and took the stone through to his room. He slipped it inside his pillowcase and headed downstairs, determined to get back to normal as soon as possible.

As he went down the stairs he saw Remus go into the kitchen and heard voices as he spoke to Sirius. Harry smiled, he'd missed older Remus. He walked towards the kitchen.

"Hey Sirius."

"Moony! Bacon?"

"No thanks, where's Harry?"

"Upstairs, taking a shower."

Harry reached the door and was about to go in but something made him stop and listen. He didn't know what. Maybe it was just that he wasn't quite ready to go in yet but whatever the reason, he stayed standing outside the kitchen for a little longer.

"Coffee?"

"Yeah ok. You seem cheerful today?"

"Yeah , well I figured out a plan."

Harry heard Remus groan.

"You can't stop it Sirius. It will happen."

Harry had a horrible feeling he knew what they were talking about.

"No it won't. See, he said it happened when he got dragged into an alley and force-fed potion, right?"

"Yes…"

"Well, if I stick with him all the time that can't happen can it?"

"I suppose."

Remus didn't sounds convinced.

Harry decided it wasn't the best time to go in so he went back up to his room to think. He slumped on his bed and pulled out the rock, twiddling it with his fingers.

So Sirius did remember, hardly surprising really, it's hard to forget that you're first boyfriend came from the future. So did Remus by the sound of things and Sirius was going to try and stop it happening. It would have actually been an alright plan if he hadn't already gone. Ironic really. That left Harry with a few options.

1. He could tell Sirius what had happened and they could try and talk it over and attempt to get past the awkwardness of the situation.

2. He could tell Sirius by letter and run away so that he didn't _have_ to deal with the awkward situation.

3. He could pretend nothing had happened and let Sirius believe his plan was working.

The first one was the most mature of the three but Harry decided that he wasn't ready to be mature about this yet and went for the third.

He put the stone back and went to the kitchen yet again. This time he actually went in.

"Hey Remus, didn't know you were up."

"Oh, hi Harry."

Remus flashed Harry a big smile. Harry pulled out a chair and sat at the table with them.

"Aren't you at work today?"

Remus flashed his eyes over at the clock.

"Yes actually. I should probably be going now really. Don't miss me too much while you're lazing around doing nothing."

Sirius stuck his tongue out at Remus who rolled his eyes and put his mug in the sink.

"See you later."

He waved at the other two and headed out of the door.

"Bye."

"Bye Moony."

In all fairness it should have been incredibly quiet and awkward when Remus closed the door but since both Harry and Sirius were trying to act normal the awkward moment didn't come. If anything it was less quiet than normal.

"Anything you want to do today?"

"Not that I can think of. We could crash Remus' work again, that was fun."

Sirius laughed at the memory. They had snuck in under the invisibility cloak and moved everything around and made half the workers in the building think the place was haunted. Remus had dragged them both out by their ears mumbling something about disembowelment.

"It's an idea but I think he might just kill us if we tried that again. We could go to the beach. They have ice-cream there, I really feel like ice-cream right now."

"Ok then, beach it is."

Sirius jumped around happily, bouncing off to his room to fetch the stuff he needed. Harry went to his own room, very pleased with himself for the normal conversation he had managed to have. Of course, they still had the rest of the holidays to go.

* * *

Harry had never been to the beach before and he wasn't sure how much he liked it. It was kind of crowded and the sand in his clothes was making him itch but by the time Sirius and him had built a sandcastle (complete with little sand men) and attempted to swim (giving up a few steps in because swimming in the sea in England is a really dumb idea) he was beginning to think it might be worth it.

When Sirius had found out he'd never been to a beach before he had insisted on doing every sea-sidey thing he could think of from trying to catch crabs, to playing with a Frisbee Sirius had transfigured from a rock, to sunbathing and watching the sun go down while drinking some kind of multicoloured cocktail which Harry was pretty sure Sirius had just invented. By then it was getting way to cold to be lying on a beach in swimming trunks and they were pretty much the only people left but the alcohol warmed Harry up a bit and he was far too relaxed to suggest going home. That would involve getting up.

"You know, I really shouldn't be encouraging you to drink."

Sirius hadn't drunk that much but it was enough to make his voice slur and Harry had drunk just enough to find that very funny. Sirius glared at him as he giggled.

"See, you've clearly already had too much."

He grabbed Harry's glass from his hand and held it out to his side so that Harry couldn't reach it.

"Hey! Give that back!"

"Make me."

Harry reached over Sirius to grab the glass but Sirius' arms were too long so he just succeeded in knocking it a bit and spilling sticky cocktail over his hand. Sirius laughed and poured the rest over Harry's head.

"EEWWWW!! Sirius!!!"

Harry turned round to glare at Sirius but all possible comebacks were sucked out of his mind when he looked at him. His eyes were shining as he laughed and his hair was spread out over the sand and he suddenly looked so much younger, so exactly like the other Sirius that Harry briefly wondered if he was back in time again. He knew he was staring but somehow he just couldn't drag his eyes away. This was Sirius- his Sirius- and this Sirius who was his Godfather and the Sirius who had been his lover until the day before were suddenly exactly the same person. Harry was snapped out of his thoughts by Sirius dropping a handful of sand on his already sticky hair. He groaned and tried to shake it out. It didn't work but he was satisfied to hear a yelp from Sirius when some of the loose sand landed on him.

"That went in my eye!"

"Well you shouldn't have dropped it on me then should you?"

Sirius rubbed his eye until it was red and made a massive fuss about the tiny grain on his eyeball. Harry would have been sorry if he hadn't known Sirius well enough to know he was almost definitely exaggerating.

"You done yet?"

Sirius glared at his Godson.

"That's nice. You've probably blinded me for life and you show no remorse at all. I feel so unloved."

"Drama queen."

"If you're not nice to me I'm going to apparate home without you and leave you here."

"Oooh scary. I _can_ apparate back myself you know. I know where our house is."

"Oh yeah…"

Harry smirked and noticed that Sirius had stopped rubbing his eye when he was talking- clearly he had been right about the exaggeration. It still amazed him how, even though he was nearly 40, Sirius never lost the ability to act like a complete 5-year old.

"Well I'll think of some suitably horrible punishment which will make you regret being mean to me. Just wait and see."

"I'm sure the terror will keep me awake all night."

Sirius laughed and hit Harry half-heartedly with the back of his hand. He smiled to himself and stared up at the sky. Harry shivered as he watched him.

"You cold?"

"No I'm fine."

"You just shivered. You sure you don't want to go home?"

"I'm ok, really."

He was lying of course; he wasn't even nearly ok. Partly because he really was a little bit cold- it was late and he was still wearing swimming trunks- but mostly because he couldn't stop staring at Sirius and wanting to touch him and he knew he couldn't. Fancying the younger Sirius was one thing but this was his Godfather and, apart from all the other obvious problems with that, he knew that Sirius didn't love him that way anymore. He would just have to get over it. Unfortunately, when Sirius wrapped an arm around his shoulders in an attempt to keep him warm, he realised that that was going to be hard. That didn't stop him from moving closer into Sirius' warmth though; it had only been a day but it felt like years since he had felt him close and he missed him.

Still, it was hard to feel bad when he was pressed close to Sirius staring up at the stars. He could pretend for a while.

* * *

A/N: Please review!


	33. Chapter 33

A/N: A speedy update but also a pretty short one. The chapter just kind of has to end where it does. Next one should be up shortly though.

Chapter 33

Harry spent the rest of the holidays realising a little more each day that his feelings for Sirius weren't going away. If anything, spending time with him was making him love him more and more every day and Harry was furious at himself for it.

Out of all the people in the world, why did it have to be Sirius?

He was the boy-who-lived; he could have whoever he wanted but he just _had_ to pick the one person who he couldn't have because Sirius saw him as a son or a friend. Any feelings he had had been left behind 20 years ago but Harry was still stuck with them.

He was starting to hate how his heart-beat sped up whenever Sirius would touch him in some ridiculously simple way like to touch his arm or just brush past him in the kitchen in the morning and he hated that he hadn't done any of his holiday work because he was so pathetically obsessed and didn't want to miss a second of being around his Godfather. He especially hated how he wasn't sleeping properly because half of the time he would lie awake over-analysing every tiny thing Sirius said or did and the rest of the time he just lay there feeling miserable about his insane situation.

He was pretty sure he managed to act normal while Sirius was there though; they did everything that holiday, ranging from bowling to shopping to ice-skating and taking it in turns to creep up on muggles wearing Harry's invisibility cloak, and Harry thought he did a very good impression of someone who was just having fun and didn't fancy their Godfather at all.

By the time the beginning of the school term approached Harry was exhausted and torn between wanting to stay behind just so he could be with Sirius, screw whether he felt the same way or not, and just wanting to get the hell out as fast as possible in the hope that the time apart would help him to regain some sanity.

A phone call from Hermione the day before they were due back made him decide that going back to school would be good for him. He had only seen Ron and Hermione a couple of times during the holidays which, for him, had been over a year long and he hadn't realised how much he missed them. He was looking forward to being back at school with them so he could hang out, be a normal teenager and forget about his problems. He didn't think he would even mind having to listen to their petty arguments.

"Harry! Food!!"

Harry threw the last of his shirts into his school trunk and ran down to the kitchen where Sirius was putting something very burnt looking on a plate. There was a reason why they almost always got take-out.

"Looks nice."

"Don't lie."

"Sorry, it looks horrible. Better?"

"Not really. I don't know how it got so burnt. I checked on it every 2 minutes. I swear that oven doesn't like me."

Harry took a mouthful.

"It's not so bad. Bit crunchy but it tastes ok."

Sirius ate a piece and pulled a face.

"Eurgh. It's terrible."

It really was.

"Chinese?"

Harry nodded. A mouthful was one thing but he didn't think he could eat more of Sirius' cooking than that. He wasn't even sure what it was supposed to be.

"Ok, I left the menu upstairs. See you in a minute."

Sirius disappeared up the stairs and Harry cleaned up the food before sitting down and leafing through the Daily Prophet while he waited for Sirius to come back down. He gave it 10 minutes before deciding that Sirius must have got lost in his room and going to find him.

He stuck his head around the door of Sirius' room to find that it was empty.

"Sirius?"

There was no reply so he went to his room, thinking that maybe Sirius thought that he would have the take-out menu in there for some reason. He couldn't think why but Sirius had a tendency to do strange things. He pushed the door open and saw Sirius sitting on his bed.

"There you are. Why are in…?"

He trailed off when he saw that Sirius was looking at something in his hand. It was a small glittery rock. Harry cursed himself inwardly when he realised he must have left it out.

"Sirius…"

"I er… I found one of your shirts in the bathroom. Brought it in here so you could pack it."

He didn't look up from the stone while he talked.

"I'm umm… I'm not really hungry right now but if you want anything just… well, you know what to do. There's money in the cupboard by the door."

Sirius stared at the rock for a few seconds longer before putting it back on the bed and standing up.

"Sirius…"

Harry didn't know exactly what it was he wanted to say but he didn't want Sirius to leave.

"I'm going to bed. I'll see you in the morning."

Sirius' voice was quiet and Harry wanted to grab him and stop him leaving, make him talk, but he couldn't make his feet move or his voice work properly. He watched Sirius leave before collapsing on his bed and burying his face in the pillow.

He heard the sounds of Remus and Tonks coming home from wherever they had been and calling out to see if anyone was around. He didn't reply and he didn't hear anything from Sirius either so he assumed he must be asleep. He listened as Remus and Tonks went to their room and then there was silence.

Harry looked over at his clock and sighed; it read 9:35.

It was going to be a very long night.

* * *

A/N: Aaannd… review!


	34. Chapter 34

A/N: Really long one! Well… it feels long to me. Hope you enjoy it.

Chapter 34

Harry had hoped that, by the morning, Sirius would have recovered a bit and they could talk about it before he went to school; he didn't really want to leave with everything being awkward between them.

However, when he walked into the kitchen to find Remus, Sirius and Tonks, Tonks and Remus smiled at him cheerfully but Sirius didn't even look at him. A brief glance at Sirius' face showed the same tired, drawn-out look that Harry knew showed clearly on his own face.

He ate his breakfast in almost silence, only speaking to encourage Tonks in whatever story she was telling or to answer Remus' questions. He kept glancing at Sirius but he continued to glare at his plate and not say a word. Realising that Sirius definitely wasn't over it yet, he retreated up to his room as soon as possible giving the excuse that he still had a couple of things to pack.

Harry and Sirius managed to avoid each other fairly easily up until it was time to leave. Remus and Tonks were too busy making sure Harry had everything to notice that they weren't really talking. The problem came when it was time to apparate to the station.

"Harry, you go with Sirius."

Harry could see straight away that that was a bad idea.

"Don't be dumb Remus, I can apparate by myself."

"I know that but you don't technically have a licence yet so it's better if you go with Sirius."

"Moony, he apparates by himself all the time."

Remus glared at Sirius in a way that said 'back me up, now!' and Sirius sighed.

"Fine."

Remus smirked and disappeared with a 'pop', shortly followed by Tonks leaving Harry and Sirius alone.

Harry looked at Sirius properly for the first time that day and immediately felt horribly guilty, although he wasn't quite sure what for. When Sirius was upset of stressed about something, the shadowy look which he had gained from Azkaban came back to his eyes. Normally it was just a distant memory. Harry hated seeing it there. He took a nervous step towards Sirius.

"Come on, we should go."

Sirius nodded and held out his arm for Harry to hold on to. Harry heard a laughing voice in his memory.

"_Nope, you have to hold on like this."_

He remembered that time at the station when they were apparating to the Potters' house a lifetime ago. He could almost feel the Sirius in his memory making him stand close and wrapping his arms around him. It hurt to know that that wouldn't happen this time.

He held on to Sirius' arm as lightly as he could and closed his eyes as he felt the familiar squeezing sensation. When he opened them again they were standing in front of Remus and Tonks at the station.

The four rushed through the muggle part to platform 9 ¾ where the Hogwarts express was already waiting.

"Bye Harry, we'll probably see you at Christmas."

Remus hugged him and Tonks ruffled his hair.

"Have fun."

Harry briefly glanced at Sirius who smiled weakly and gave a half wave. He tried to smile at the group but suddenly he just wanted to be as far away as possible, somewhere where he could just be alone. He said goodbye and rushed straight onto the train, waving over his shoulder as he went.

Most people were still on the platform saying goodbye to their families so Harry had no problem finding an empty carriage. He enjoyed his few moments of peace before Ron crashed in, panting for air.

"There you are mate. Remus told me you were in here already."

Ron's face was bright pink and clashed horribly with his hair and he was leaning against the wall in an attempt to get his breath back.

"Have you been running?"

"Yep."

"Why?"

"Long story."

Ron collapsed on the seat next to Harry. He was about to launch into his story when Hermione burst into the carriage looking very indignant.

"Now Ron, really, you shouldn't have run away form your mum like that, she… oh hi Harry!"

"Hey."

Hermione seemed to completely forget about whatever it was she was telling Ron off for.

"How was your holiday? I've hardly seen you. We went to Rome. It was so fascinating; I have to tell you all about it."

Ron groaned quietly as Hermione started to give a minute by minute account of her holiday. Harry had a feeling Ron had already heard it all at least once. He settled back into his seat and watched out of the window as the station drew away, half listening to Hermione's story and smirking at the pained look on Ron's face as she told them all about the history of the coliseum. When she was finally done (after what seemed like hours), Ron explained to Harry what the story with his mum was which turned out to be a fairly normal story involving him accidentally getting ink on her favourite skirt and her finding out at the station when someone pointed it out to her. The way Ron told the story, with his customary face pulling and hand waving, made Harry laugh until his stomach hurt and he was feeling much more cheerful.

It was good to be back.

The three chatted and laughed and bickered for the whole journey, catching up on everything that had happened over the holidays (well not quite _everything_; Harry decided some things were best kept secret). The only time Harry remembered his home issues was when Ron asked how he could not be have gotten bored spending most of the holiday with just Sirius.

"I' mean, he's a fun bloke and all but if I had to spend that much time with my family I think I would die."

Hermione rolled her eyes.

"That's because you, Ronald, don't appreciate your family nearly enough. Besides, Harry and Sirius are more like friends than family anyway."

Harry really didn't feel like talking about anything Sirius-related so he nodded to show he agreed with Hermione, which he did, and changed the subject.

Other than that, the whole train ride went smoothly and by the time they arrived at school and sat down for the feast he felt better. Not perfect but definitely better.

* * *

"Harry?"

Harry felt Hermione prod his shoulder but he didn't lift his head off the table. It was breakfast on the first day back at school and it was way too early to be awake.

"I think he's asleep again."

"Lucky git."

"Harry?"

"Leave him be 'Mione. I'd be asleep too if I could."

Harry almost lifted his head up to thank Ron but that would have required far too much effort. Just as he was about to fall asleep for real something hit him in the head, hard, and shocked him awake. He looked around to see a ruffled owl attempting to climb out of the scrambled eggs. It was carrying a letter with his name on. Hermione helped the bird and passed him the letter which was also covered in egg.

Harry

*Insert small talk here* I would ask how school is going but since you haven't even been there a day yet… well, it seems a bit pointless.

I am so sorry.

I literally felt like smacking my head against a wall yesterday when I watched the train go because this is so stupid. I mean it when I say that you are one of the most important people in my life and we have so much fun and I really don't want things to be awkward.

I feel like such an idiot.

Scratch that, I AM an idiot. I do try not to be though.

Any sane responsible person would have talked about this BEFORE you got on a train to miles away.

We can talk about this at Christmas, yeah?

Write back so I know whether you think I'm a complete prat or not.

Sirius

By the time Harry finished reading the letter he was wide awake and grinning. Ok, it was short and he would obviously have preferred if Sirius had said that he wanted him to come home right that second so they could have sex on the kitchen table but he was willing to accept that that was unlikely to ever happen and having Sirius recover enough to write and to not want them to move to separate countries was good enough.

"Who's it from?"

"Sirius."

"But you only saw him yesterday!"

Harry smiled to himself, ignoring Ron, and looked at his timetable. Double Potions first. All of his happy feelings went away and he put his head back on the table. Ron looked over his shoulder and groaned.

"That is so unfair."

* * *

"I know you think you know everything Mr Potter but you would do well to pay attention if you want to stand a chance in the upcoming exams."

Snape snapped the pointing stick he was holding on the desk in front of Harry, forcing him to wearily lift his head up from the desk. He wasn't sure what it was about potions that always made him want to sleep but he thought it might be some strange illness he had. Ron looked at him sympathetically, earning his very own glare from Snape.

They had been late to potions since both of them were too tired to walk at a reasonable pace. This had meant that not only was Snape in a worse mood with them than usual but they also had to sit right at the front, right under his beady eyes.

One good thing about this particular lesson was that he had already done the course. True he hadn't paid attention for most of it but he did know the material a lot better than he would have done otherwise; he had already answered two of Snape's questions correctly. Logically, you would think Snape would be pleased about this but it just seemed to make him angrier. Go figure.

"Since you obviously feel you know this well enough to sleep through the lesson, tell me Mr Potter- what is the missing ingredient in this potion?"

Well that was difficult. He knew the potion but, since he hadn't been watching, he had no idea what Snape had already put in it. Damn. He looked at Ron for help but just got and apologetic shrug. Brilliant, he was going to get a detention in his first lesson of the year.

"Wormwood?"

Snape's lips curled up in a sneer. Wrong then.

"Unfortunately not Mr Potter. I'm afraid you will have to attend yet another detention for not paying attention in class. See me after to arrange it."

Great. Just fantastic- first lesson of the year and he was already in detention. It was fairly predictable since he got detention in 2 out of 3 lessons with Snape but still… Detention. On his own. Fun.

* * *

Harry hummed in his head and thought of Quidditch in an attempt to block out Hermione's disappointed tone.

"Honestly Harry, it's the first day- we aren't first years anymore."

"Leave him alone Hermione. It's not his fault Snape hates everyone."

Harry shot a smile at Ron. He knew this would lead to Ron and Hermione arguing for hours but since he wouldn't be there to listen he was just grateful to Ron for being on his side.

"Yes Ronald, but not _everyone_ gets detention from him every other lesson."

"Yeah well, he hates everyone and he just hates Harry more."

"I'm just saying that some of these detentions would be easily avoided if Harry paid a bit more attention."

Harry looked at the clock; Time to go. He wasn't sure if he was pleased because that meant he could escape this argument or annoyed because he was facing an hour of mystery torture.

"I'm going now guys. See you later."

Neither of his friends heard him or noticed him leave.

He briefly considered pretending to fall down the stairs so he could hide out in the hospital wing instead of going to the detention before deciding that Snape would probably reschedule it for a Saturday. Besides, he had done hundreds of detentions by now and so far they hadn't killed him.

By the time he reached the dungeons he was feeling much better about his ordeal, after all it was only an hour.

"There you are Mr Potter. I was just telling Mr Jackson here that you will both be arranging the textbooks in alphabetical order for your detention today."

Well that wasn't too bad. Sure, there were a lot of them, but it would be fairly easy. Harry looked over at 'Mr Jackson' and smiled. It was Leo. He had completely forgotten that he would probably be here. In fact, he had completely forgotten about him full stop. He decided that, since he had company now, this really couldn't be worse than listening to Ron and Hermione fighting.

Leo mouthed a silent "hey" at him and rolled his eyes at Snape who was going through all of the usual threats.

"… So this better be done properly. Do I make myself clear?"

Harry bit back laughter as Leo nodded very sincerely.

"Yes, or course sir, absolutely. You can count on us."

Snape glared at him before sweeping out of the room. Leo sat on one of the desks.

"I was hoping you'd be here. Detention for one is deadly."

Harry often wondered how Leo managed to get so many detentions. He was _always_ in detention when Harry was which was strange since Harry did get an amazing amount of potions detentions and Leo was in Ravenclaw; He had always thought that Ravenclaws were too good to be in detention that often. But then, he thought, to be in Ravenclaw you only had to be smart. There was nothing said about behaving in potions lessons.

"I was going to write you over the Summer but stuff got in the way. How were your holidays?"

They talked randomly about the Summer for a while, completely ignoring the books, and in the middle of their conversation Harry started to notice things he hadn't noticed before about Leo. Namely, the way that he would look directly at him a lot more than any of his other friends did and the way he tended to touch him quite a lot. Nothing extreme, just brushing his hand over his arm or leg when he was making a point or ruffling his hair. He also noticed that he was really kind of cute.

He had this longish blonde hair which fell in his eyes when he laughed and shook his head and big brown eyes. He was more pretty than hot but Harry really liked looking at him.

He was so lost in this new discovery that he didn't notice that Leo was still talking and when Leo noticed he was basically talking to a brick wall he grinned.

"I know my face is gorgeous but there's really no need to stare."

Harry snapped out of his daze, suddenly flustered, trying to think of excuses for his staring. His stuttering seemed to make Leo smile even more. He shifted closer so that Harry could feel him breathing.

"I meant to talk to you about something before the summer actually but I kept wimping out. It's really ok if you don't… basically, if you wanted to…"

Suddenly Leo wasn't so confident anymore, he couldn't focus on Harry's face and he was shifting around uncomfortably.

"Merlin, I'm so bad at this. I was just wondering if, maybe, you'd want to go out sometime?"

Harry was a little shocked. He had seen it coming once Leo started stammering and looking at his shoes but a part of him had still expected him to say something else completely unexpected like "do you want to join a fencing club with me?" .

"Ok, I get it, you don't want to. That's fine. God, this is awkward. Just er… forget I said anything? Or at least give me a chance to get witness protection before you tell anyone I said that. I'm so dumb, I swear…"

"Yeah, sure."

"Of course you wouldn't… wait, what?"

"I said "yeah, sure". I'd like that."

"Really?"

"No I was joking...Yes really."

Leo blinked in surprise a couple of times before breaking into a giant smile.

"Cool."

"Yeah."

After a few seconds they lapsed back into comfortable conversation and started on sorting out the books. By the time Snape got back they had only got through a quarter of them but thankfully he didn't seem in a mood to inspect their work and let them go only a few minutes late. The two walked up the stairs mostly in silence until they reached the floor where the Ravenclaw common room was.

"So… bye. See you around I guess?"

"Yeah. See you."

Leo bit his lip nervously and Harry forced himself to be brave and lean forward, kissing him softly on the lips. Leo sighed in relief and pulled him a bit closer. It was awkward and very different to what Harry was used to. When Harry pulled back Leo smiled and for a second Harry was sure his brown eyes turned deep, silver grey. He waved goodbye and ducked into his common room leaving Harry to watch the space where he had been. Leo was cute and funny and easy to talk to… but he wasn't Sirius. Harry hoped he would get over that. Preferably quickly.

* * *

A/N: Review? Please? I'll make brownies =)


	35. Chapter 35

A/N: It's shortish, sorry. RL stuff hasn't been great this week but I thought I would update anyway. I'm just good like that ;)

Chapter 35

"Huh?"

Ron looked more than confused. Harry was a little concerned that his brains were about to explode or drop out of his ear in the effort to understand the simple fact he had just told him.

"I said I'm gay."

"… What?"

Hermione hit the back of Ron's head in frustration and he seemed to snap back out of the perplexed daze he was in.

"You're seriously gay?"

Harry almost laughed at the stunned look on Ron's face. He decided that the first thing he would do later would be to laugh about Ron's reaction if his best friend didn't reject him.

"Yes."

"And you and Leo are… well, you know…?"

"Yes."

Hermione interrupted.

"Well I think it's great. So long as you're happy then we're fine with it. Aren't we Ron?"

She looked at him pointedly and he nodded.

"Yeah… yeah it's just… wow. No it's great just… unexpected you know?"

After his initial shocked reaction Ron seemed to get used to the idea fairly quickly, eventually claiming that he had really known all along and was just waiting for Harry to realise it himself. This made both Harry and Hermione roll their eyes and smile. Hermione was ridiculously supportive; asking questions and grinning every time she saw Harry and Leo together. Harry wouldn't have expected anything else from her really; she was always there for him.

He remembered the whispering and giggling that had followed Sirius and him around when everyone had found out about them and was stunned by the difference in reactions from the school. Obviously there were people who laughed and made snide comments but it was mostly just the Slytherins and they would have found a reason to do that anyway. Everyone else was either supportive or just didn't mention it. They were interested of course- he was Harry Potter- but it really wasn't anywhere near as hard as he had expected it to be. He supposed people's attitudes to things like this would have changed quite a lot over 20 years.

His relationship with Leo was going very smoothly; they hung out, talked, laughed, kissed and there were really no complications at all. Hermione was convinced he had found the perfect relationship and was insanely jealous and Harry was pretty sure she was right. After all, he didn't ever fight with Leo, he enjoyed spending time with him, and they shared a lot of the same interests. Harry was getting very good at ignoring the bit of him that told him that it wasn't enough, the part that wanted passion and love instead of just to be happy and content, and every day it seemed to shrink away a bit, the memories of the summer fading until they seemed like a dream.

Harry had found out a lot about Leo since they started seeing each other. For example, he sheepishly admitted that he used to get potions detentions on purpose so he could spend time with Harry and that he was too nervous to talk to him any other time. He found out that he had known he was gay for a couple of years and had never had a proper boyfriend but had kissed a few guys. He lived with his parents and his younger sister who would be coming to Hogwarts next year and they were really a pretty average family- Leo was a normal guy with a normal life. Hermione had pointed out that that was probably good for Harry who had far from a normal life and could really do with the balance. Harry nodded in agreement when she said that while secretly wondering if someone with a completely regular life could ever really understand all the weird things that had happened to him.

He pushed all these thoughts to the back of his head; he had realised a while ago that thinking too much about anything just made him stressed.

* * *

Harry leant back against the tree and wrapped his arm around Leo's shoulder, feeling him relax against him. It was October and cold outside but since Leo was in Ravenclaw they couldn't hang out in either of their common rooms together. Harry thought they would probably have to find somewhere inside fairly soon but for now it wasn't too bad.

Leo was talking about something he was doing in charms. Harry vaguely remembered learning it the year before but not enough to contribute more to the conversation than the occasional nod or smile. Leo didn't seem to notice though and just carried on talking.

Harry found his mind drifting off to the warm common room where Ron and Hermione were probably doing homework or talking. He smiled as he pictured Hermione trying to do her potions essay at the same time as hiding it from Ron so he couldn't copy.

"Hey Leo, you don't mind if I head back up do you? It's just I have a mass of homework to do."

Leo just smiled and stood up, helping Harry to his feet.

"Sure, I probably should too really."

Harry kissed him goodbye at the top of the stairs and walked back to Gryffindor Tower, trying not to feel too guilty.

"Harry! Wasn't expecting you back so early mate."

Harry grinned at Ron and sat on the couch next to him, noticing that he only had half a line of his essay written so far and that it was strangely similar to Hermione's. Ron saw him looking and winked and as Harry watched his two best friends with amusement, he found it very hard to feel bad for blowing off Leo. He had promised to meet him the next day anyway.

* * *

Harry liked breakfast at the weekends. It was so much more enjoyable when you didn't yawn between every mouthful and end up with porridge in your hair from accidentally falling asleep on your plate.

He chatted with Ron and Hermione and talked to Leo for a bit when he came over to remind him to meet him at 11:30 and generally felt pretty relaxed about life.

"Mail!"

Harry looked up briefly. He didn't see Hedwig so he turned his concentration back to his food. It turned out that the reason he didn't see her was because she was just about to dive-bomb into the back of his head.

"Ow!!"

She dropped a postcard in front of him and pecked him affectionately as he rubbed the back of his head. His small amount of annoyance disappeared as he stroked her head and sent her back to the owlery with a piece of toast. He flipped the postcard over and read it.

_Harry_

_Guess where I am?!?! (see front of postcard for clues)._

_That's right- while you are stewing in lessons I am sitting on a beach in the South of France. Go on, moan, I know you want to._

_Anyway, I did have a reason other than bragging for writing (although that is really fun) - I thought I would pre-warn you that we are staying at the Weasleys' for Christmas because Molly was complaining she doesn't see you enough anymore. _

_Isn't life fun?_

_Well, it is for me- I'm in France J_

_Write back. How are things going?_

_See ya_

_Sirius_

Harry turned the postcard back over and saw the picture of a sandy beach with an umbrella on the front.

He thought about what Sirius had told him. It really wasn't so bad. He liked all the Weasleys it was just that Molly got a bit unbearable whenever Sirius was around. It could be ok. He knew Sirius would be driven completely insane by the end of the week but Harry was sure he was mostly insane anyway so… did it really matter?

"Who's it from?"

Ron sprayed Harry with food when he spoke.

"Just Sirius."

Ron nodded and went back to his food and Harry tucked the postcard in his pocket. He finished his food before heading straight up to the dormitory to write a reply, ignoring the part of his brain that pointed out that he never normally replied to letters this fast and that he would probably be late to meet Leo if he wrote a letter and sent it first.

_Sirius_

_France? Who wants to go there? Give me double potions any day._

_But seriously, bring back some of that bread they have. I love it._

_That's not so bad. I can watch you get terrorised by Mrs Weasley for a week. Can't wait. _

_Things are going ok. Nothing new really. I haven't had a potions detention for a whole week and a half- has to be some kind of record right?_

_Also, I think Ron and Hermione might FINALLY get together. Ron said something to me the other day which was vaguely like a confession that he fancies her. Who knew anyone could be so slow?_

_Other than that things are fairly uneventful here. _

_Eat a snail for me- I've always wanted to try one._

_Bye_

_Harry_

He took the letter up to the owlery and sent Hedwig off with it. It wasn't until she had flown out of sight that he checked his watch and swore loudly when he realised that it was 11:50. He was supposed to meet Leo 20 minutes ago.

He sprinted down the stairs, down several corridors and out of the doors. Finally arriving, panting, at the Quidditch pitch where they were supposed to meet. Leo didn't look pleased.

"Where've you been?"

"Sorry… I just… I got held up by Peeves and then I got the wrong stairs. I'm really sorry."

Harry panted out his lie in between breaths. He didn't have to lie. There was nothing suspicious about writing to his godfather. However, he didn't think Leo would feel too great about the fact that he had been more interested in writing a completely unnecessary letter to said godfather than coming to meet him. Besides, Harry felt like it was suspicious. Every time he so much as mentioned Sirius he felt like everyone knew. He felt indescribably awful when Leo smiled at him and linked their arms together.

"It's ok, Peeves is a nightmare."

Harry nodded and tried to ignore his sinking stomach. Leo deserved so much better than this. He let his boyfriend lead him off into the grounds, making extra sure to smile more brightly and kiss him more often. That way he could at least try and convince himself that he wasn't the worst boyfriend in the world.

* * *

A/N: Review! It keeps me going.


	36. Chapter 36

A/N: Kind of short, fill-in chapter but at least it's a chapter right?

Chapter 36

Half term came and went, the weather turned bitterly cold and everything stayed the same at Hogwarts. The seventh years were being worked ridiculously hard to prepare for their NEWTs and in the rare breaks they got, none of them felt like doing much other than lying around and chatting. Harry was even starting to find himself too tired to play Quidditch. He was determined not to stop but it had never been so much of an effort before. It was strange since he had already done this year once and it definitely wasn't as hard the first time round. But then, he supposed he hadn't really been putting much effort in.

Harry and Ron spent a lot of time trying to distract Hermione from her attempts to read the entire contents of the library. When she did stop for a minute she was too exhausted to even bicker with Ron.

One plus side of all the work was that all the time he spent talking to his friends instead of rushing madly around to school meant that Harry really had a chance to understand what was going on in their lives in a way he hadn't really since before the war. He had made it his new personal mission to try and get Hermione and Ron together. He had enlisted Leo's help in this mission since he had far less work to do in his year and he had also had to listen to Ron's moaning about Hermione in the detentions they had all had together the year before. He wasn't a brilliant planner but he had the occasional good idea. Besides, scheming on your own is just no fun.

"I think we should involve frogs somewhere."

"How would frogs help get them together?"

"They wouldn't but you can never have too many effects and frogs make an awesome sound."

As the words came out of his mouth, Harry noted how much he sounded like Sirius. He could almost see him sitting on his bed waving his arms around as he talked about using budgies and bright pink feathers in pranks that were completely unrelated to either of those things.

"Maybe we should get and actual plan first?"

"Ok. I'm thinking veritaserum?"

"How are we going to get that?"

"Snape has loads."

"How are we going to get it _without _getting murdered by Snape?"

"We'll be subtle."

"Can't we just trick them into admitting they fancy each other somehow?"

"Won't work; Ron's too pig-headed. He will deny it until he explodes."

"That can't actually happen you know?"

"It's an expression."

"Not a real one."

Harry rolled his eyes; Ravenclaws took everything so literally.

"It's irrelevant. We need veritaserum. I can get that then we can think of the rest of the plan."

Leo didn't look like he liked the idea of Harry raiding Snape's stores but he didn't say anything which was good because Harry probably wouldn't have listened anyway. He briefly noted that if he had still had the Marauders around this plan would've been formed in minutes. As it was he was basically creating it himself with Leo around for company. He pushed that though out of his head though; the planning had given him and Leo something to do and he was enjoying it; There was no point in ruining that.

He looked up to see Leo looking back at him with a confused expression on his face. Well, more thoughtful than confused.

"What's up?"

Leo snapped back to attention.

"Nothing. It's not important."

Now Harry was curious purely because he knew that whenever he said that something wasn't important himself, it normally was.

"Tell me."

"Ok, I was just wondering what you think about when you go all distant like that. You do it all the time."

Harry looked away. He hadn't realised it was so obvious.

"Nothing really. I just space out."

Leo punched Harry's arm softly.

"You're not getting out of it that easy; I answered your question."

Harry just looked at his hands and said nothing. After a moment of silence he heard Leo sigh next to him.

"Ok, I get it. It's fine, you don't have to say just… you know you can right?"

Harry nodded.

"Yeah I know. There's really nothing important to tell."

He tried to hide it but Harry could see that Leo was hurt and he felt awful. He really did like Leo; He was sweet and very attractive and way too good for him. He leant towards him and lifted his head with a finger under his chin and kissed him, letting his eyes flicker shut and wrapping his arms around him to pull him close, breathing him in. He smiled when he felt Leo relax and press closer. His lips were soft and tasted sweet and having him close locked out some of the chill that was creeping through the castle walls. Harry didn't know how long they stayed there for but he knew it was a long time and for the whole time they were kissing he didn't think about Sirius once. He held Leo's hand on the way up the stairs and kissed him again when they parted, hugging him close. He went to Gryffindor tower and up to his dorm with a grin on his face which stayed there until he fell asleep.

His dreams were filled with black hair and storm grey eyes and a soft voice which said "I love you".

Things don't change _that_ easily.

* * *

A/N: Review! I'll try and make the next one better.


	37. Chapter 37

A/N: Ok, fast update and its long AND has Sirius in it. Hope that makes everyone happy.

Also, there is only going to be few more chapters of this. Then I'm done. It's been going on a while though, huh?

Chapter 37

Ron jumped up and down on his bed, his red hair flopping around all over the place. Harry knew that the second they saw Mrs Weasley she would be saying about how he desperately needed it cut. This didn't seem to be bothering Ron though.

"I'm so excited! Aren't you excited?! A whole three weeks. Three glorious weeks of no work!!"

Harry laughed; Ron had already reminded him about this several hundred times.

"We still have holiday work you know."

Ron shot him a withering look and he grinned. He was just as excited as Ron. In fact, he was pretty sure all of the seventh years were; even Hermione had admitted that she needed a break.

Harry felt like he had a hundred reasons to be happy about the upcoming Christmas holidays. For one he would be spending it with his best friends, for another he would get to see Sirius again and hopefully be able to enlist the help of Sirius and possibly Fred and George to carry out his plan to get Ron and Hermione together. It wasn't even slightly complicated but group pranking was more fun than solo plots.

Harry threw his last shirt in his trunk and locked it, proud that for once in his life he was done packing before it was time to leave. He looked up from his trunk to see Ron jumping up and down on his bed playing air guitar and singing Home Sweet Home. He laughed and threw a pillow at him.

"Get of the stage!"

Ron glared and was just about to say something when Hermione burst in. Ron's flushed bright red with the embarrassment of her almost witnessing his air-guitar which made Harry laugh even more. Hermione shot them both a disapproving look.

"If you are quite finished we need to go now."

Ron's massive grin returned and he jumped off his bed, grabbed his trunk and disappeared down the stairs, singing again. Hermione raised an eyebrow as she heard his very out of tune voice singing:

"I'm on my way, Home sweet home…"

Harry shrugged and followed him down.

* * *

Ron's cheery mood seemed to rub off on everyone and by the time the train pulled into Charing Cross Harry's stomach ached from laughing. Ron and Hermione jumped off the train straight away and disappeared into the crowd to find the Weasleys. Harry was about to follow them into the swarm of people when he was pulled into a corner by a hand on his arm.

"Weren't going to leave without saying goodbye were you?"

Leo had a half grin on his face. His hair was messed up from the train journey and his eyes were sparkling with laughter. He had Harry pinned against the wall. Harry grinned back.

"Of course not."

He pulled Leo up closer and kissed him hard, Leo leant into him laughing and slipping his hands under his shirt. Harry vaguely registered that they should probably stop since they were still on the platform but he couldn't bring himself to care too much. He was saved making the decision to pull away by Ron throwing something at his head.

"Oy! Get a room will ya?!"

Harry laughed and pulled Leo into a hug.

"Sorry about that."

Leo just smiled and hugged back. Ron looked impatient.

"Yeah, touching. Harry, mum sent me to get you and if we don't get back soon she's going to come looking herself."

"Ok, ok, I'm coming."

He let go of Leo.

"See you when we get back."

"Yeah, I'll miss you."

"You too."

Harry wasn't sure if he believed it or not but he said it anyway. When they were out of earshot Ron rolled his eyes and grumbled.

"You two are so ridiculously sappy, you know that?"

Harry laughed and pushed Ron lightly, causing him to crash into an old witch with a little kid hanging on her arm. She sent him the most evil glare Harry had ever seen and Ron scurried away, apologising as he went. By the time they found Mrs Weasley and the others Ron was bright red and Harry was still snickering.

"Harry love! I'm so pleased to see you!"

Harry was smothered by Mrs Weasley. He attempted to reply but he couldn't get enough air.

"It's been far too long. We've all missed you terribly."

Finally she released him and smiled up at him in a motherly fashion.

"Come on then kids, let's go."

They made their way out of the station and piled into Mr Weasley's car which creaked worryingly under their weight. Mrs Weasley chattered the whole way to the Burrow about the chickens and the house and the other Weasleys. Harry loved her dearly but he was glad he didn't have to see her too often.

The Burrow looked the same as ever. For some reason Harry always found it comforting that the Weasleys' home never changed.

"Now you can all take your things to your rooms. The others are out getting food, they should be back soon."

Harry and Ron practically sprinted to Ron's room. Harry was still feeling excited and he guessed Ron was too judging by the fact he was bouncing around his room and hugging everything in it. They stayed there laughing and hugging the room until Mrs Weasley yelled at them to come down.

"Honestly, how long does it take to put a bag in a room."

They both tried to look sheepish but failed and burst out laughing again instead. Luckily, they were saved from another lecture from Mrs Weasley by something big and black skidding into the room and launching itself at Harry. Harry gasped for breath between laughter as he tried to swat Padfoot away from his face.

"Stop… Sirius! That… tickles. Stop it!"

The dog changed into a person and rolled off Harry. Harry tried to glare at him but it was impossible to be annoyed when Sirius looked so happy and he had missed him so much. Mrs Weasley looked at Sirius disapprovingly.

"Now really Sirius, Harry could have been hurt."

"He's fine Molly."

"But he might not have been; you need to be more careful."

Sirius rolled his eyes and Harry got the feeling that the two of them had probably had about a hundred different versions of this argument since Sirius had arrived here. Fortunately Sirius didn't seem to be in the mood to fight and just turned away, talking to Harry instead.

"Do I get a proper hug too?"

Harry smiled and pretended to think for a second before shrugging.

"I guess. If that would make you happy."

Sirius stuck his tongue out and hugged Harry tight. Harry buried his face in Sirius' hair and tried to breathe him in in the short time he was close. He pulled away way too quickly for Harry's liking and Harry cursed himself for being so desperate. Suddenly he wasn't so excited anymore. He had missed Sirius a lot but he had completely forgotten how difficult it was to be around him and how depressing it was to not be able to touch him.

Shouldn't he be over that by now?

* * *

Life at the Weasley's was so hectic that just being there made Harry tired. He seemed to spend all his time stopping Hermione and Ron from bickering and when they were getting on ok there was always someone accidentally blowing things up or breaking something. Molly and Arthur seemed to argue in the same way as Ron and Hermione about pointless things and Molly didn't seem to be able to get through an hour without pointing out something that someone had done wrong. Ron and Sirius were the main recipients of this but occasionally she would switch to someone else.

As a result of this Ron was in an awful mood and Sirius seemed bent on being as immature as he could possibly be. Harry would get annoyed by it if he didn't find it so funny.

Dinner times were the funniest. It seemed to Harry as if Molly saved up things to complain about through the day and vented them all over the meal.

"You know Ron, if you would just cut it you would look so much tidier."

Ron gritted his teeth and stabbed a pea with his fork.

"Leave him alone Molly; it's his hair."

Molly glared at Sirius for his interference.

"And your's isn't much better. Having ridiculously long hair is one thing when you're a teenager but don't you think you should have grown out of that by now?"

Harry tried not to giggle too loudly at the fact that Molly was telling Sirius, who was nearly 40 years old and very definitely old enough to make his own decisions, to get a hair cut. It was especially funny since Harry knew how touchy Sirius was about his hair. He waited for an explosion to come but Sirius stayed remarkably calm. Harry had a feeling that the forkful of rice which "accidentally" fell on Molly's lap a few minutes later might not have been a complete coincidence though. Fred and George decided to change the subject. They had just come round for dinner that day and wanted to hear all the news the others could tell them.

"So kids, how's life at Hogwarts these days?"

"Boring without us?"

Harry raised an eyebrow sarcastically.

"Of course. Without you around to blow things up our lives feel incomplete."

Fred stuck his tongue out at Harry.

"Anyone less sarcastic have any news?"

Everyone looked blank. George rolled his eyes and sighed.

"Merlin you lot are boring. No pranks? No girls? Not even an interesting detention?"

Ginny shrugged.

"Well there were no pranks and I dunno about detentions and I guess you know about Leo so…"

"Leo? You get yourself a boyfriend Gin?"

Ginny blinked and looked cornered. She had assumed everyone already knew. She had just realised that she had been wrong there. She looked at Harry for help and he took pity on her.

"No, Leo's my boyfriend."

Harry wished he could have had a camera ready for their reaction because not one person at the table succeeded in not looking shocked. A few of them recovered fairly quickly and started in with the questions:

"How long?"

"What's he like?"

And to Harry's relief they seemed pretty happy for him. When the original panic had worn off Harry glanced sideways at Sirius who hadn't really said much. His godfather saw him looking and smiled at him before going back to his food and occasionally laughing at one of the questions. Harry tried not to wish he would look at least a little bit upset.

Eventually Molly interrupted the stream of questions by telling them to clear up. Everyone picked up their plates and carried them through to the kitchen.

"And Sirius, don't forget it's your turn to wash up tonight."

"Lucky me."

Harry smiled at Sirius' low muttering.

"I'll help out, it won't take long."

So the two of them attempted to sift through the mountain of dirty plates. Molly didn't like them to use magic since she claimed all boys had awful housekeeping spells and they would damage the plates so after a few minutes they were elbow deep in bubbly water. Harry snorted with laughter when Sirius covered his face in bubbles.

"Check me out, I'm Santa!"

"You do realise that water is disgustingly dirty right?"

Sirius stuck his tongue out and got a mouthful of soapy water. Harry laughed at him as he spluttered and pulled faces.

"Eurgh, there's food in it!"

"Wow, what a surprise."

Sirius heard Harry's sarcastic monotone and rounded on him, grinning as he rubbed handfuls of bubbles into his face and hair. Harry tried to protest but it came out as a muffled squeak since he couldn't open his mouth without swallowing the water. Eventually he managed to push Sirius off. By this point Sirius was laughing so hard that he forgot to steady himself and skidded over on the wet floor, landing very ungracefully on his arse on the kitchen floor.

The two grinned at each other for a moment, still laughing as they took in the wrecked kitchen.

"Molly is going to be sooo mad."

Sirius just smiled even bigger.

"Yup she is… ain't life grand?"

Harry laughed and sat down next to him, leaning up against a cupboard and brushing some of the bubbles off his clothes. Sirius watched him for a bit in silence before speaking again.

"So, this boyfriend of yours?"

Harry looked at the floor and scratched his head awkwardly.

"Oh, yeah… he er…"

"You like him?"

"Yeah."

"Good. You deserve it."

Harry looked at Sirius. He was playing with a handful of bubbles which he had fished out of his now wet and tangled hair. Harry wondered if he would ever get to the point where Sirius could tell him he had a boyfriend and he would be able to tell him that that was a good thing. Sitting next to him on the kitchen floor, listening to his smooth voice and watching his eyes sparkle as he told a story, it seemed very unlikely.

* * *

A/N: Please review!!


	38. Chapter 38

A/N: Sorry for the wait guys- the electric people cut our power so I haven't really had use of the computer for a while but all is good now because my nan paid our bill. Yay for electric lighting!

So anyway, here's another chapter…

Chapter 38

"AHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Harry sat bolt upright in bed and grabbed his wand before relaxing. It was just Ron. Hermione and Ginny were standing either side of the red-head's bed, grinning as he looked around at them angrily, trying to get his breath back.

"That… wasn't very nice."

"Time to get up Ronniekins!"

Ginny reached out and ruffled his hair and his expression became even more annoyed.

"It's 7:50"

"It's Christmas!"

"It's still dark!!"

Harry swung his legs over the side of his bed and grabbed his dressing gown. He had a feeling he wasn't getting anymore sleep. He left Ron, Hermione and Ginny arguing and shut the door behind him.

Outside their room the house was still silent and all of the other doors were closed. He was about to head downstairs when one of the bedroom doors caught his eye. He grinned evilly. Well, if he wasn't getting to sleep then why should Sirius. It was only fair after all…

He crept over to the door and pushed it open almost silently. Sirius was still fast asleep, curled around one of his pillows and breathing softly. He looked so peaceful that Harry almost felt bad for waking him… almost.

"BOO!"

Sirius jerked awake as Harry yelled straight into his ear. He too grabbed his wand on awakening. When he saw Harry laughing at him he narrowed his eyes and glared.

"That was mean and unnecessary."

"Of course it was necessary; it's Christmas!!"

Sirius didn't seem to agree with this and glared some more.

"Fine, if you're gonna be boring I'm going to go find someone else."

Harry turned around to leave but felt himself be pulled back by his waist so that he fell over onto the bed.

"You think you can just wake me up and get away with it? Not likely."

Sirius attacked Harry, tickling him all over until he was rolling around the bed, breathless from all his laughing and shrieking.

"I reckon you woke up the whole house with your noise."

"Oh yeah, like that's my fault."

Harry tried to look annoyed but he couldn't stop himself from laughing. His laughter stopped abruptly when he looked at Sirius.

In his amusement he hadn't even noticed that Sirius was pretty much on top of him or how close he was or that now he was awake and had stopped tickling him he seemed to be staring at Harry with a strange look on his face. Harry felt like he should say something, do something, to break the moment and get them back onto comfortable ground but he couldn't, didn't want to.

Harry was jerked out of his daze by Ron, Hermione and Ginny's voices as they walked past the door. He glanced at Sirius once more before pushed himself up and sliding off the bed. He held a hand out to Sirius to help him up and the moment was gone. The two made their way down to the kitchen joking and laughing as if nothing was different. Anyone watching them wouldn't have noticed but Harry could feel the tension; it was buried deep underneath but it was there and Harry thought he was going to explode with it because surely Sirius must know now? He had to know Harry wasn't over it. That was a conversation Harry desperately didn't want to have.

By the time they were downstairs Ron, Ginny and Hermione had managed to wake up everyone else in the house and the whole family was gathered grumpily and the table in the living room.

"Wow, you're a Christmassy lot aren't you?"

Molly glared at Sirius and Harry thought it best to intervene. It would be nice to get through the day without anyone being killed.

"Anyone want to open presents?"

Molly fixed on her best caring mum face and smiled.

"Of course, off you go kids."

Ron looked like he was about to object to that fact she was talking to them like 5 year olds but when Harry glared at him he took the point and followed the others into the living room. Harry glanced over his shoulder to see Sirius stand up to follow while not so subtly slipping something into Molly's tea. Molly was too busy ignoring him to notice. Harry briefly wondered if he should try and distract her in order to get the tea away before deciding that whatever it was probably wouldn't kill her and going into the living room with the others.

"What was that?"

Sirius smiled innocently.

"What was what?"

"Don't act all innocent with me; Molly may be blind but I'm not."

Sirius rolled his eyes and sighed.

"Honestly, you're no fun. You will see later."

Ron chucked a present at Harry as they walked in through the door. Only his amazingly fast reflexes stopped it from hitting his head and knocking him out.

"Hey! Careful."

They were half way through unwrapping the various presents and there was paper all over the floor when they heard a scream and a mutinous looking Molly Weasley stormed into the room. Sirius ducked behind Harry to use him as a shield.

"SIRIUS BLACK!!"

Sirius leant into Harry and whispered.

"I think she might be a little annoyed at me."

Harry was caught between wanting to hit him and wanting to crack up laughing; Molly's face, hair and, judging by her hands, the rest of her body were completely blue. She looked a bit like an oversized smurf.

"WHAT DID YOU DO?!?!?!?"

"I thought it would look festive?"

"FIX IT NOW!!"

Sirius sighed and clambered up from the floor.

"Ok, ok."

Harry could've sworn he heard him mutter "fun-sucker" under his breath but thankfully Molly didn't.

"I think I just have to… Oh, no that's not right."

Fred and George stifled giggles as Molly's face broke out in yellow spots. Harry buried his face in his hands; this couldn't end well.

"Hang on, hang on I can fix it… At least I think I can… maybe...."

Molly began to look more and more impatient as Sirius considered a way to fix the problem.

"Oh…"

The yellow spots were joined by a lot of silver glitter.

"Sirius!"

"I'm sorry. I think we're just going to have to wait until it wears off."

"And when will that be?!"

"Not long. A week, tops."

"A WEEK?!"

Molly looked like she was about to explode so Harry stood up and grabbed Sirius' arm.

"But we promise we will try and find a way to fix it before that. Won't we Sirius?"

He stamped on Sirius' foot and Sirius nodded earnestly before shooting Harry an evil look.

"Does anyone want some tea? Molly? It will help you calm down."

"Yes Harry dear that would be lovely. Thank you."

She smiled at Harry and he dragged Sirius out to the kitchen. As soon as the door closed Sirius broke down laughing.

"Did you see her face? Classic."

Harry tried not to grin and look as stern as possible as Sirius leant against the counter for support.

"Honestly Sirius, did you _have_ to antagonise her on Christmas?"

"Yes! She's unbearable! Besides, if you can't be stupid and immature on Christmas when can you be?"

"I know she annoys you but seriously, she's going to be in an awful mood now."

"Doesn't matter; we're leaving at the end of the day."

Harry had forgotten that it was their last day at the Weasley's. Harry could tell Sirius was glad to be leaving by the smile that covered his face and Harry was pretty relieved to be going himself; he didn't think he could take much more of Mrs Weasley and Sirius' fighting, but at the same time…

They still hadn't talked about what happened before and Harry was pretty sure that once they were alone properly Sirius would want to. Then there was that awkward moment that morning; if things like that happened too often there was a lot of potential for awkwardness between them.

"Hello?"

Harry shook his head and smiled.

"Sorry I zoned out for a bit, what were you saying?"

"Just that we should probably make that tea or Molly will OW!"

Hedwig had flown in through the window and used Sirius' head as a runway.

"Hedwig! Sorry about that, she does that sometimes."

Sirius just rubbed his head and nodded.

"That better be important if I had to get nearly scalped for it."

Harry opened the letter which was attached to the parcel Hedwig was carrying.

_Dear Harry,_

_Merry Christmas!_

_I'm missing you loads, hope you are having fun at the Weasley's. Maybe when you get back to yours we could see each other? _

_My family are being a nightmare, they are pretty overbearing but still it's nice to be at home. I told them about you and they really want to meet you. Maybe you could come round? I really want to meet your Godfather too._

_Anyway, I miss you, I already said that but I do, and I hope you like your present. Tell everyone I said hi._

_Love you_

_Leo_

_Xxx_

"Well? Was it important enough for me to have been mortally injured?"

"Not really."

"Who's it from?"

"Leo."

"Oh… He's the boyfriend right?"

"Yeah."

"Cool."

"Hmm."

Harry slipped the parcel into his pocket and busied himself with making tea. He felt too guilty to open it right then since he hadn't really missed Leo at all and had all but forgotten he existed until he had got the letter.

"You're enthusiastic."

Harry ignored him and pretended to be occupied with finding a mug.

"Harry?"

"Yeah?"

"Are things not going so well with him? 'cause you haven't mentioned him at all and you don't seem to pleased to hear from him…"

Harry just wanted Sirius to shut up. He didn't want to talk about it and he really didn't want to admit to Sirius, of all people, that it really wasn't working out. Sirius _couldn't _know that he wasn't happy and over him.

"Things are fine, they're great. It just hasn't really come up in conversation that much you know? But he's awesome, I really miss him."

"You sure?"

"Yeah, definitely. He's amazing."

Sirius nodded and filled the mug up and handed it to Harry.

"Good, come on, we have to serve her majesty."

Harry's heart sank at the lack of reaction and he turned away so that Sirius wouldn't see his expression, missing the sad look on Sirius' own face.

* * *

A/N: Please review!


	39. Chapter 39

A/N: Sorry for the wait again. So close to the end now it's insane. Thanks a bunch to everyone who reviewed the last chapter.

Chapter 39

The rest of the day passed without too much drama. Molly got a bit irritated when the twins set off fireworks in the kitchen but Ginny calmed her down quickly and the peace continued. It seemed like no time at all before Harry and Sirius had gathered their belongings together and were saying their goodbyes to everyone at the fireplace. Harry had to fight back a laugh when Sirius grabbed the still blue and spotty Molly in a hug and proclaimed how he would miss her. However, Molly was much too emotional by this point to notice the general sarcasm in the action.

Hermione was leaving too and although she was full of smiles and thanks Harry knew she was as glad to be getting home as he was. This was confirmed when she hugged him and muttered something about peace and quiet in his ear.

He waved and thanked them again before stepping into the fireplace and feeling the earth swirl around him. He landed with a thud on a familiar floor. He was about to stand up when Sirius landed on top of him, knocking all of the air out of him.

"You two are just so graceful."

Harry grinned up at Remus who dragged Sirius up off him and then helped him to his feet

"Didn't think you'd still be up."

"Thought I'd wait and say Merry Christmas. So Merry Christmas. Now I'm going to bed."

With that Remus disappeared up the stairs.

"Wow, don't you just feel so loved?"

"Oh yeah, that was possibly the shortest Christmas greeting I've had since I left the Dursleys'."

Sirius grinned and flopped down on the couch.

"Don't take it personally; he's just anxious to get back to his loveeerrr."

Harry laughed and sat next to him.

"Real mature Siri."

"I try."

Harry felt silence creeping up and desperately searched for something to say to stop it.

"Good to be back home huh?"

"Yeah, gotta say, Christmas with Molly Weasley isn't really my favourite way to spend the day."

Harry shot him a sympathetic look.

"Well at least now you don't have to do that for a couple of years. Next year we'll find something really good to do."

"Deal. But it's only… 11:45 now and I'm pretty sure Christmas isn't over until it's properly morning."

Harry noted the devious grin on Sirius' face and smirked in return.

"What did you have in mind?"

Sirius thought for a bit before his eyes lit up and he grinned back up at Harry.

"Pancakes."

"Pancakes?"

"Yeah, I want to make pancakes."

Harry raised an eyebrow.

"That's your great plan?"

"Trust me, it's brilliant. Come on."

He grabbed Harry's wrist and dragged him to the kitchen.

He was right; it was fun.

The kitchen was freakishly clean as a direct result of only Remus and Tonks having been around for the last week but after 20 minutes, having dropped 4 eggs and forgotten to put the lid on the blender, it looked like there had been some kind of war. Remus came downstairs to tell them to shut up at about 2 in the morning. When he saw the mess he looked resigned and told them to clean up when they were done and went back to bed. Harry was having way too much fun to feel guilty.

The pancakes looked surprisingly good when they were done so they piled them on a plate and found every single thing that could possibly be good on pancakes in the house, including some things which Harry was fairly sure only a pregnant person would want to eat together.

"Now we have to hunt for the perfect eating spot."

"Can't we just eat them here?"

"No! It has to be somewhere comfy and preferably not too close to Moony's room."

"The living room?"

They tried the living room but Sirius quickly determined that it wasn't comfy enough for pancakes and the hunt restarted. Eventually they decided on Harry's room, Sirius' being a little closer to Remus and Tonks' room.

"This is good."

"Ok but try not to get too much sugar on my bed; I have to sleep in it."

Sirius immediately dropped the sugar shaker and Harry rolled his eyes.

"Thanks."

"Purely accidental I swear."

"Whatever."

Harry sat down in the middle of his bed and sulkily ate his pancakes. If Sirius noticed that he was pretending to sulk then he didn't care; he was too busy looking around the room and occasionally prodding things. After a few minutes of watching Sirius nose around in the stuff on his bedside table Harry felt he had to ask.

"What are you doing?"

"Being nosey."

"I got that far I was just wondering what you think you're going to find that's that interesting on my bedside table."

"Dunno… drugs, a gun, explosives, a picture of Moody dressed like a girl."

"Why would I have a picture of Moody dressed as a girl?"

Sirius looked up and smirked.

"I love how you picked that instead of the gun or explosives."

Harry rolled his eyes again.

"Seriously though, what are you looking for?"

Sirius shrugged.

"Nothing in particular; I'm just curious."

He turned back to face Harry.

"I was thinking of going to Italy in January. Might go skiing."

"And I'll be at school. Isn't life thrilling?"

Sirius laughed at Harry dramatically stabbing his pancake in mock annoyance. He reached out and ruffled his hair which earned him a glare and a piece of pancake flicked at his face.

"Aw come on, school can't be that bad."

"You only say that because you don't have to go."

"Fair point, you get to see that boyfriend of yours again though. That must be good right?"

Harry felt a sudden rush of annoyance. He tried to push it away because, really, it was completely unreasonable but he couldn't. Why did Sirius have to _keep _bringing up Leo?

"Why do you keep asking about him?"

"What so I'm not allowed to be interested? You haven't said anything about him; I'm curious, so shoot me."

"Well I don't want to talk about him."

Harry was surprised by his own tone and looked up to apologise but stopped when he saw that Sirius didn't look put out at all.

"Ok calm down, we can talk about something else."

Harry nodded and stared at his plate and nodded in what he hoped was a non-committal fashion.

"The weather? That's always interesting."

Harry looked at him like he had just gone mad.

"No? Ok, the Muggle legal system? I personally think it's much better than the wizarding one. But then I'm not a massive fan of legal systems full stop."

Harry had no idea what Sirius was trying to do but the uncomfortable feeling in the pit of his stomach told him he probably wouldn't enjoy it.

"Or we could talk about this."

Harry felt something land in his hand and glanced down to see a familiar looking shiny rock. Shit.

"Looks like that's a winner."

Harry put it down on the bed and struggled to meet Sirius' gaze.

"Can't we talk about it some other time?"

"No because we won't and you know we need to."

Harry briefly wondered when Sirius had suddenly become so sensible; he wasn't sure he liked it very much. He would prefer for them both to continue being immature and keep edging around the subject until it went away.

"Harry?"

Harry sighed and gave in.

"Fine. But I'm really not sure what there is to say?"

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Why didn't _you _tell _me?_"

"I mean before. When you were in the past. Why didn't you say who you were?"

Harry could have laughed if the whole situation wasn't so embarrassing.

"Well there was the whole changing time thing but mostly I was pretty sure "hey Siri did I mention you're my Godfather?" would probably be a relationship killer."

Sirius wasn't arguing there. He wasn't asking any more questions either, just sitting on a pillow biting his lip, lost in his own thoughts.

"Look Sirius I just really don't know what there is to talk about now. It's done. Can't we just… pretend it never happened and move on with life?"

Harry felt an enormous sense of déjà vu as he watched Sirius looking down at his hands his hair hiding his face from view. Eventually he looked up, a smile fixed on his face.

"Sure, whatever you want."

He picked up his plate and stood up, brushing some imaginary crumbs off his clothes.

"Listen, I'm tired. I think I'm gonna go to bed now. See you tomorrow."

Harry watched helplessly as he headed towards the door, having no idea what was wrong. Shouldn't he be glad that the subject was closed; no more awkwardness?

Sirius closed the door behind him and Harry heard his foosteps down the stairs. He lay awake for hours in silence.

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Review please!!!!


	40. Chapter 40

A/N: I know it's been crazy long. Sorry about that. Thanks to everyone who reviewed. Here's chapter 40...

Chapter 40

Harry really hated that Remus would always be ridiculously cheerful on the mornings when he felt like killing things.

"Breakfast Harry?"

"No thanks."

"Nothing at all."

"I'm fine with coffee thanks."

"Ok."

He sat down at the table, whistling behind his newspaper and occasionally commenting on something he read. Sirius trudged in looking how Harry felt and went straight to one of the cupboards without comment.

"Morning Padfoot. Breakfast?"

He didn't bother to reply, just opened a different cupboard.

"What are you looking for?"

"Hangover potion."

"All out. I meant to get some the other day but I forgot. You could have some coffee though."

"Oh great, fan-bloody-tastic."

"Well if you didn't drink…"

"Yes I know Moony, I know but it's a little late now so if you don't mind sparing me the lecture I'm going to the shop."

He grabbed his coat and slammed the door behind him and Remus arched and eyebrow at the closed door.

"Well someone's all sunshine and rainbows this morning."

Harry picked up his mug of coffee and wordlessly went up to his room, leaving a bewildered Remus alone in the kitchen.

* * *

Harry swore violently as he spilt hot coffee on his hand. He transfigured a shirt into a towel and rubbed it off, muttering under his breath.

Sirius was so infuriating! One minute they were fine and then suddenly he was being all sulky and getting drunk in private and not talking to anyone; he could _at least _have the decency to tell him why he was acting like a hormonal teenage girl.

Harry ran over the whole conversation they had had the night before and kept coming up blank. They were fine, then they started talking about…things, then Harry said they should forget about it then Sirius got like this.

The more he thought about it, the more certain he was that it must be Sirius' time of the month.

A knock at the door made him jump and spill more coffee.

"Shit… What?"

Remus poked his head cautiously round the door.

"I was going to just go out and leave you to sort out whatever issues you have by yourself but I decided that it would be better for everyone if no one blew anything up."

Harry just grunted and continued to mop up the coffee; Remus took this as permission to enter.

"So are you going to tell me what's up or do I have to drag it out of you? I would ask Sirius but he stormed out already."

"Nothing, Sirius is just being a git."

"Because…?"

"How should I know?"

"So he's just moody and hungover for no apparent reason?"

"Sounds about right."

"That's stupid and you know it."

Harry felt indignant; true Sirius didn't normally get pissy for no reason, not anymore anyway, but he really hadn't done anything this time.

"No it's not, I really don't know what's up with him; one minute he was fine and the next he looked like midwinter at Snape's house."

"Well what happened just before he got moody?"

Harry shrugged.

"We were talking, then the whole time travel thing came up, I said there wasn't really anything to talk about and we should just forget it and then he went all silent on me and said he had to go to bed."

Remus had his famous all-knowing look plastered all over his face and Harry felt like slapping him.

"Go on then, I know you're dying to tell me that it's obvious and that I'm an idiot."

"Not at all."

"But you do know why he's being like this?"

"Of course."

Harry waited for a moment before rolling his eyes impatiently.

"Well? You going to tell me? It would make fixing it a hell of a lot easier."

"I think you should ask Sirius."

"I tried that last night; he didn't answer. Tell me!"

Remus shook his head and grinned, getting up and moving towards the door.

"My lips are sealed."

"Remus!!!"

It was futile; he was gone and had left Harry feeling confused and very annoyed. He heard the door slam downstairs and stood up muttering to himself as he stomped down the stairs.

"Fine. He wants me to ask Sirius, I will."

Sirius was in the kitchen looking slightly better for the hangover potion but still pretty grumpy. Harry stormed into the room and slammed the door behind him.

"Ok, what gives? If you're going to be mad at me you can at least tell me why."

"I'm not mad at you."

"Sure."

"I'm not."

"Look, if you really want to talk about it that badly then we can."

"I don't. You're right; we should just forget about it."

"Then what's wrong with you?!"

"Nothing, just give it up will you?"

By this point they were pretty much yelling at each other across the kitchen and Harry inwardly cursed himself for the fact that even when he was mad at him he couldn't help noticing how sexy Sirius was when he got worked up.

"Why won't you tell me? I can't do anything to fix it if you just don't talk to me."

"Because it's not important."

"Yeah, you're acting like it's really minor."

The sarcasm seemed to annoy Sirius even more and he snapped, yelling louder.

"Fine, you really want to know?"

"Obviously."

"It's because I don't want to "just forget about it", ok?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It's supposed to mean I'm a sick old man who fancies his Godson even though I know I shouldn't. I don't want to just forget about it because I can't just forget that easy."

Harry had no response to that and from looking at Sirius' face it looked like he was seriously wishing he had kept his mouth shut.

"Shit Harry, I'm sorry; I shouldn't have said that."

Harry's mind was whirring and refusing to settle down long enough to process anything and he really wanted to sit down but he couldn't remember where the chairs were in this kitchen. He forced himself to focus long enough to talk.

"Did you mean it?"

"Yeah but….

"Then that's ok."

Harry closed the space between them and Sirius began to look even more uncomfortable.

"No, it's not ok; I'm you're Godfather, I'm 20 years older than you, I'm supposed to look after you and help you, not get jealous about your boyfriend and want to kiss you and…"

Harry cut him off, reaching up to wind his arms around his neck and connecting their lips together. He felt Sirius exhale as their lips touched for the first time in what was months for Harry and years for Sirius. He kissed back for a few moments before pushing Harry away half-heartedly.

"No, we can't, this is wrong."

"I don't care."

"Harry, listen to me, I really think…"

Harry silenced him a second time, this time kissing him harder than the first. He knew he had won when Sirius moaned and wrapped his arms around his waist, pulling him closer. Harry pushed him back against the counter, enjoying the feel of his lips and their tongues dancing together; Sirius tasted just the same as before and he was just as capable of making Harry insides melt with his kisses as ever.

After minutes of kissing Harry pulled back, twisting a piece of Sirius' hair around his finger.

"I'm so going to hell for this."

Harry laugh and kissed his neck gently.

"Then we can go together."

Sirius grinned and pulled him into a tight hug.

"Sounds good to me."

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A/N; Review! Please!


	41. Chapter 41

A/N: Ok, it's been a very long time and this is the official last chapter. It really wasn't worth the wait (just to warn you).

You can thank SexySiri for this because she was the most recent person to message me to tell me to get off my ass and write it.

Epilogue

"Hermione Granger"

The room filled with applause as Harry watched his best friend climb the stairs to receive her golden scroll from Dumbledore. Her cheeks were flushed with pleasure as she shook the headmaster's hand and Harry saw her glance around the room from the corner of her eye. He found himself following her gaze, scanning the audience for familiar faces.

He could see the Weasleys, Remus and most of Order. The parents of the other people standing around him, clutching their own scrolls. When Hermione was standing with them it would be over- they would have all graduated for Hogwarts.

Looking at them now Harry had never felt so separate from them all. So much had happened to him in the last year and none of them knew any of it. He was used to the feeling of being an outsider but this time he hugged it to himself, enjoyed the feeling of having a secret that made him happy for once.

He caught Sirius' eye in the audience and the other man winked at him. He smiled and turned back to face Hermione coming down the stairs towards him.

"Well what are you waiting for? Get out of here."

There was a laugh at Dumbledore's words and the audience and the crowd of teenagers merged together, everyone finding their separate families. Harry felt Ron's hand on his shoulder.

"How surreal is this?"

Harry grinned.

"I know, they're actually letting us loose in the world."

"How long do you reckon Hermione will last without any homework to do?"

"I heard that!"

Ron winced and dodged towards his mum. Mrs Weasley rolled her eyes and smiled at Harry.

"Will you be coming round to ours for a bit to celebrate?"

Harry caught sight of Sirius approaching over her shoulder.

"No thanks, I think I'll just go home. I've got some boxes to unpack."

Molly frowned but didn't say anything. The subject of Harry moving in with Sirius was touchy for her and she didn't even know the truth. She was just worried he might end up an eternal bachelor or in prison. Ron just couldn't comprehend the idea at all- why would anyone want to stay at home when they could have their own place? Harry just smiled to himself at that. Ron and Hermione had finally gotten together half a year ago and he was pretty sure that it wouldn't be long before Ron lost his freedom too. He was also pretty sure that Ron wouldn't mind at all.

It had been hard to keep their relationship a secret but Harry was still nervous about telling people- He had a feeling that there were a few people that wouldn't take too kindly to the idea but they could just go to hell. Now he was finished with school they could finally live together and be open and Harry had never been so excited in his life.

"Ready to go?"

Harry shivered at the warm breath on his ear and nodded.

"Yup."

The world compressed and swirled around him until he was standing in the living room of his house. His and Sirius'. No sooner had he regained his balance than he was being pushed backward into a cardboard box full of polystyrene beads.

"Hey!"

He grabbed Sirius by the knees, pulling him into the box on top of him and throwing the beads in his face. Sirius threw some back and soon it was full-out war.

Ten minutes later found them both exhausted and cuddled up on the couch, Sirius resting his chin on Harry's head and blowing on one tuft, making Harry twitch from the cold air.

"You're very annoying, you know that?"

"Love you too Colin."

"Colin?"

"Oh sorry, Harry. Colin's the mail boy. I get so lonely here all by myself."

Harry whacked Sirius on the head causing him to change into Padfoot and jump on his unfortunate boyfriend, knocking him over all over again and then dumping the entire box of polystyrene beads on him. Padfoot seemed to grin as he trotted out of the room leaving Harry blowing bits of white stuff out of his mouth wondering what he had go himself into.

* * *

A/N: So there you go. It's been a long run. Hope you all enjoyed it :)


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